^^^^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^^^^ 


Purchased  by  the 
Mrs.  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy  Church  History  Fund. 


Division.. ^jf^.!^.'^  I 

Section  t.  mz  


The  Quakers  in  England 
AND  America 


THE  PUBLISHED  WORKS 

OF 

CHARLES  F.  HOLDER 


The  Life  of  Charles  Darwin  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York 

The  Holders  of  Holderness ....  Bailey,  Banks  &  Biddle,  Philadelphia 

The  Marvels  of  Animal  Life  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York 

The  History  of  the  Elephant  (The  Ivory  King)  ....  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York 

Along  the  Florida  Reef  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York 

The  Game  Fishes  of  the  Sea  (America)  . .  .  .The  Outing  Co.,  New  York 

Stories  of  Animal  Life  American  Book  Company,  New  York 

The  Treasure  Divers  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York 

The  Big  Game  Fishes  of  America. ..  .The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York 

The  Boy  Anglers  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York 

Angling  (Joint  author  with  Dr.  Yale  and  others)  ....  Chas.  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York 

Half  Hours  with  Nature — Fishes  and  Reptiles ...  .American  Book  Co., 
Half  Hours  with  Nature — The  Lower  Animals.  . .  .American  Book  Co., 
New  York 

Half   Hours   with    Nature — The    Birds   and   Mammals. ..  .American 

Book  Co.,  New  York 
Leading  American  Men  of  Science ....  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  New  York 
The  Channel  Islands  of  California. ..  .A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago 

The  Marooner  B.  W.  Dodge  &  Co.,  New  York 

Fish  Stories  (Pres.  David  Starr  Jordan  and  C.  F.  Holder  H.  Holt 

&  Co.,  New  York 
The  Game/ Fishes  of  the  Pacific  Coast....  The  Dodge  Publishing  Co., 

New  York 

The  Recreations  of  a  Sportsman  G.  P.  Putnam  Sons,  New  York 

Life  in  the  Open  in  Southern  California..  . .  G.  P.  Putnam  Sons,  N.  Y. 

Big  Game  at  Sea  The  Outing  Co.,  New  York 

The  Log  of  a  Sea  Angler  Houghton,  Mififlin  &  Co.,  Boston 

The  Life  of  Louis  Agassiz  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York 

The  Adventures  of  Torqua  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Boston 

The  Luminous  Animals  and  Plants  (Living  Lights)  ..  Chas'  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York 

Elements  of  Zoology  The  American  Book  Co.,  New  York 

A  Strange  Company  D.  Lothrop  &  Co.,  Boston 

Stories  of  Nature  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York 

An  Isle  of  Summer  R.  Y.  McBride,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

The  Game  Fishes  of  the  World  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  London 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/quakersingreatbrOOhold_0 


GEORGE  FOX 
From  the  Sirarthniore  Painting  by  Lely 


The  Quakers 

in 

Great  Britain  and  America 


The 

Religious  and  Political  History  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  from  the  Seventeenth  to 
the  Twentieth  Century 


TWO  VOLUMES  IN  ONE 


By  , 

CHARLES  FREDERICK  HOLDER,  LL.  D. 

Author  of  **The  Pioneer  Quakers,"  "The  Life  of  Agassiz,"  **Life 
and  Work  of  Charles  Darwin,"  '*The  Channel  Islands 
of  California,"     Leading  American 
Men  of  Science,"  Etc. 


New  York 


THE  NEUNER  COMPANY 
Los  Angeles 
1913 


London 


To 

MRS.  RUSSELL  SAGE 

Philanthropist 

Descendant  of 
The  Pioneer  Quaker  Ministers 
Christopher  Holder  and  Peleg  Slocum 
The  Quaker  Governor  Wanton  of  Rhode  Island 
and  of 

Captain  Miles  Standish 


PREFACE 


There  is  a  dearth  of  purely  historical  works  written 
during  the  period  of  the  early  Quaker  activities  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century,  or  from  1645  to  1700,  though  there 
are  seemingly  endless  pamphlets  and  papers  relating  to 
the  purely  doctrinal,  religious,  or  controversial  side  of 
Quakerism. 

This  being  the  case,  the  modern  historian  or  student  draws 
much  of  his  authentic  information  from  such  sources  as 
the  Journal  of  George  Fox,  Sewell,  the  Dutch  historian  of 
the  Quakers,  Bowden,  Besse,  Bishop's  "New  England 
Judged,"  a  few  others,  and  the  vagrant  historical  data  ob- 
tained from  monographs,  pamphlets,  letters,  records  of 
meetings,  etc.,  collected  by  indefatigable  workers  in  Devon- 
shire House,  London,  and  the  various  Historical  Societies 
of  Friends,  and  by  college  and  private  libraries  in  both 
countries.  There  are  a  number  of  eminent  modern  works 
devoted  to  various  periods  and  phases  of  Quakerism,  its 
distinguished  men  and  women,  the  philosophy  and  mys- 
ticism of  the  subject,  and  its  various  religious  phases  and 
controversial  episodes,  all  appealing  to  the  student  or  his- 
torian or  the  reader  of  history.  But  neither  in  England  nor 
America  have  I  found  a  popularly  written,  well  illustrated, 
condensed  history  of  Quakerism  as  a  whole,  from  the  birth 
of  George  Fox  to  approximately  1913,  in  one  volume. 

It  is  this  desideratum!  that  I  have  attempted,  or  hoped 
in  some  measure  to  supply.  I  am  aware  that  it  is  much  more 
difficult  to  make  a  successful  or  useful  book  of  this  sort 
than  a  history  like  that  of  Besse  or  Sewell,  which  contains 


12 


PREFACE 


the  minute  details  of  the  subject.  I  am  also  aware  that  my 
sense  of  proportion  and  of  values  may  not  meet  the  appro- 
bation of  some,  as  consistent  and  perfect  condensation  is 
more  or  less  a  science  in  itself ;  but  I  have  endeavored  to 
put  myself  in  the  place  of  a  reader  hunting  in  a  library 
for  the  brief  essentials  of  Quakerism,  as  I  found  myself  in 
the  British  Museum  library  in  1910,  and  have  made  my 
own  demands  and  necessities  my  guide  for  better  or  for 
worse. 

I  have  attempted  to  make  a  history,  eliminating  or  con- 
densing what  I  conceive  to  be  the  non-essentials  in  such  a 
work  (features  of  importance  and  interest,  which  have  been 
ably  treated  in  special  works  easily  available).  I  have 
endeavored  to  prepare  a  history  for  the  masses,  yet  one 
in  which  the  student  or  historian  will  find  the  essential 
facts  of  Quakerism  without  having  to  refer  to  interminable 
works  and  pamphlets  scattered  over  America  and  England, 
in  very  few  libraries  in  the  United  States  outside  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  certain  schools  and  col- 
leges, as  Haverford,  Swarthmore  and  others. 

To  illustrate.  I  have  mentioned  but  briefly  the  Hicksite 
separation,  as  the  subject  is  fully  treated  in  many  works 
and  in  the  Life  of  Elias  Hicks.  Nor  have  I  gone  into  the 
minutise  of  the  Joseph  John  Gurney  schism  about  which  a 
volume  could  be  written.  In  a  word,  I  have  hoped  to 
present  a  popularly  written  condensed  history  of  the 
Quakers,  yet  covering  a  wide  range.  In  the  treatment  of  the 
subject  I  have  emphasized,  but  not  unduly,  the  political 
aspects  of  the  moral  conquest  by  the  Quakers,  and  have 
briefly  carried  along  their  relations  to  the  various  reigning 
monarch  s  and  rulers  of  the  time  —  Charles  the  Second, 


PREFACE 


13 


James,  William  and  Mary,  the  Georges,  Queen  Victoria, 
and  Washington  in  America.  Hence  certain  aspects  of 
English  political  history  have  been  related  as  they  were 
germane  to  the  story  of  Quakerism. 

The  average  citizen  or  reader  has  a  very  faint  idea  of 
the  profound  influence  Quakers  have  had  in  the  evolution 
of  Christianity  during  the  last  two  and  a  half  centuries  in 
England  and  America,  though  it  is  a  fact  that  there  are 
few  colonial  American  families  in  New  York,  Philadelphia 
or  Boston  that  have  not  a  Quaker  branch  or  forebear. 

The  Quakers  were  the  pioneers  in  1 6^6  in  every  dominant 
reform  normal  men  and  women  are  fighting  for  in  1913. 
In  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most  profligate  reigns  England 
had  ever  seen  George  Fox  called  a  halt  in  tones  that  echoed 
around  the  world.  My  fifth  great  grandfather,  Edward 
Gove,  of  Hampton,  New  Hampshire,  in  1683  headed  a 
rebellion  against  Governor  Canfield  charging  him  with 
what  is  known  to-day  as  "graft."  John  Fiske,  the  historian, 
says:  "An  arrogant  and  thieving  ruler  had  goaded  New 
Hampshire  to  acts  of  insurrection."  Heading  an  insurrec- 
tion in  the  name  of  morality  and  honor  in  1683  was  trea- 
son, and  Edward  Gove  was  sentenced  to  death.  This  was 
changed  to  three  years  in  the  Tower  of  London  and  con- 
fiscation of  property.  Thus  the  Quakers  fought  "graft"  and 
special  privilege  in  America  in  1683.  George  Fox  spoke  in 
public  for  temperance  in  1650.  He  denounced  slavery  and 
all  the  immoralities  of  the  time.  Christopher  Holder  de- 
manded arbitration  in  place  of  war  in  1660,  political  and 
religious  freedom,  and  there  is  not  a  great  moral  reform 
from  capital  punishment  to  the  equality  of  women,  or  the 
freedom  of  slaves  to  civic  righteousness,  worked  for  to-day 


PREFACE 


by  organized  forces,  that  the  Quakers  had  not  thought  of, 
and  were  demanding  from  the  housetops  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago.  They  fought  and  died  for  the  simple  life, 
morality  and  virtue.  Such  lives  should  not  be  forgotten, 
should  be  known  to  the  people  of  to-day  who  are  enjoying 
the  religious  liberty  the  early  Quakers  fought  and  died  for. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  work  I  have  consulted  the 
colonial  records  of  America  and  all  available  and  essential 
data  in  England.  That  relating  to  Christopher  Holder, 
the  fourth  great  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  is  here 
given  for  the  first  time  in  full,  and  was  collected  by  tracing 
the  movements  of  the  pioneers  through  Massachusetts  in 
1656  to  1690  by  the  Colonial  Records.  I  have  consulted 
most  of  the  Friends'  books,  papers  and  manuscripts  in 
America  and  England  of  value  in  this  particular  connec- 
tion, and  I  am  deeply  indebted  to  Besse,  Sewell,  Bowden 
and  other  historians  of  the  early  days.  My  thanks  are 
due  to  Norman  Penney,  the  librarian  of  Devonshire  House, 
for  many  courtesies,  to  the  librarian  of  the  British  Museum 
during  my  work  there,  and  to  the  Boston  library,  rich  in 
Quaker  books.  I  am  particularly  indebted  to  Mrs.  God- 
frey Locker  Lampson,  author  of  the  "Post  Bag,"  by  Long' 
mans  Green  &  Company,  for  her  kind  permission  to  copy 
a  letter  of  William  Penn  and  one  from  the  Quaker  botanist, 
Thomas  Lawson.  I  am  also  under  deep  obligations  to  R. 
Barry  O'Brien,  Esq.,  author  of  a  life  of  John  Bright,  for 
permitting  me  to  use  the  data  relating  to  John  Bright,  writ- 
ten especially,  he  tells  me,  for  him,  by  Lord  Eversley,  who 
served  under  the  great  English  Quaker  in  the  government. 

In  this  volume  I  have  used  two  Quakers,  or  in  one  in- 
stance a  descendant  of  notable  Quakers,  John  Bright  and 


PREFACE 


15 


Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  to  illustrate  the  profound  influence  of 
Quakerism  in  England  and  America,  and  my  cordial  thanks 
are  due  the  latter  for  many  courtesies  and  much  important 
data  relating  to  her  Quaker  ancestry.  I  am  dedicating  the 
volume  to  her,  with  her  permission,  as  a  slight  indication 
of  appreciation  of  her  work  in  the  physical,  intellectual 
and  moral  uplift  of  the  nation  as  witnessed  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Sage  Foundation.  I  wish  to  express  my  obliga- 
tions to  Mr.  David  S.  Taber,  of  the  New  York  Friends 
Book  and  Tract  Committee,  for  many  kind  attentions,  and 
to  the  sons  of  the  late  Wm.  H.  S.  Wood  for  permission  to  use 
his  pamphlet  on  the  Friends  of  New  York.  My  thanks  are 
also  due  to  the  Friends  Historical  Reference  Library  of 
London,  and  to  the  Historical  Society  of  Philadelphia;  to 
the  late  Albert  K.  Smiley  of  the  Mohonk  Conference  for 
data,  to  Dr.  Augustine  Jones,  to  Miss  Sarah  Hacker  of  the 
Lynn  Historical  Society,  and  to  Elizabeth  B.  Emmot  of 
England.  My  warm  thanks  are  due  to  Professor  Sylvanus 
Thompson,  the  biographer  of  Lord  Kelvin,  and  to  the  Hon- 
orable T.  Edmund  Harvey,  M.  P.  My  acknowledgments 
are  presented  to  the  Friends  Historical  Society  of  Phila- 
delphia for  several  illustrations,  and  to  the  Friends 
Tract  Association  of  London  for  pictures  of  early 
Friends,  to  Headley  Bros.,  who  published  them,  and  I 
have  especially  to  thank  the  Friends  Historical  Society  of 
London  for  the  quaint  illustrations  of  ancient  Friends  meet- 
ing-houses, from  the  brush  of  Dr.  Pole,  appearing  in  the 
Journal  Supplement,  the  text  by  Edmund  Tolson  Wed- 
more,  with  notes  by  Norman  Penney.  I  also  wish  to  ex- 
press my  great  indebtedness  to  William  A.  Wing,  Curator 
of  the  Dartmouth  Museum  of  New  Bedford,  for  the  letter 


i6  PREFACE 

of  Christopher  Holder,  his  ancestor,  bearing  his  signature, 
the  only  one  of  the  kind  in  existence,  and  for  valuable  his- 
torical pamphlets  and  brochures  on  Old  Dartmouth,  Peleg 
Slocum,  and  others. 

Charles  F.  Holder 
Pasadena,  Los  Angeles  Co.,  Cal. 
January  i,  1913. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  1.                        •  PAGE 
Religious  and  Political  Conditions  in  England  Previous  to  the 
Nineteenth   Century    23 

CHAPTER  II. 

Quakerism,  What  it  is    30 

CHAPTER  III. 

George  Fox    43 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Quakers  and  Cromwell   65 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Protectorate    83 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Martyrdom  Under  Cromwell  110 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Under  the   Restoration  140 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
William  Penn  in  England  169 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Quakers  Under  James  the  Second — and  William  and  Mary...  196 

CHAPTER  X. 

Queen  Anne  and  the  Georgian  Period  225 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Victorian  Period  252 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Evolution  of  Organization  276 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
John  Bright  and  Quaker  Influence  in  England  286 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Mrs.  Russell  Sage.    Illustrating  Quaker  Influence  in  America  317 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Puritan  Intolerants  341 

2 


18  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XVI.  PAGE 
Pioneer  Quakers  in  America  354 

CHAPTER  XVIL 
The  First  Society  in  America  374 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Martyrdom  of  the  Quakers  405 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Mary  Dyer  and  Her  Friends  433 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Nantucket  Quakers  459 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
The  New  York  Invasion  476 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
William  Penn  in  America  496 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
The  Quakers  in  New  Jersey  530 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Quakers  in  the  South  and  West  539 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
The  Quakers  in  War  Time  550 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Quaker  Home  Life  in  America  569 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Ways  and  Customs  of  Friends  594 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
The  Quaker  in  Literature  614 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
Quaker  Activities   625 

APPENDICES 

Christopher  Holder's  Reply  to  Nathaniel  Morton  645 

Bibliography   658 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

George  Fox  (Lely  Portrait)  Frontispiece 

George  Fox    45 

Leominster  Meeting  House   46 

Tewkesbury  Meeting  House    47 

Oliver  Cromwell    65 

Milton  and  EUwood    66 

General  Monk   140 

Louis  IV  141 

William  Penn   169 

William  Penn   170 

Pardon  of  Edward  Gove   203 

King  Charles  Second  204 

Address  of  Quakers  237 

Frenchay  Meeting  House   238 

Swarthmore   238 

Exeter  Meeting  House  250 

Milverton  Meeting  House   250 

Cheltenham  Meeting  House  251 

W^orcester  Meeting  House  251 

Isaac  Braithwaite   258 

Daniel  Wheeler   258 

Joseph  Sturge   258 

Joseph  Bevan  Braithwaite  258 

Jordan's  Meeting   259 

Jordan's  Meeting  (Interior)  259 

Elizabeth  Fry   270 

Gulielma  Penn   271 

John  Bright   286 

William  III  287 

Mrs.  Russell  Sage  317 

Governor  Joseph  Wanton   318 

Letter  of  Christopher  Holder   329 


20  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Sir  John  Endicott  330 

Christopher  Holder — Tower   339 

Holder  Hall   340 

Elizabeth  Comstock   406 

Avis  Keene   406 

Caroline  Talbot   406 

Charles  F.  Coffin   406 

John  Chase  Gove   407 

Desk  of  Daniel  Holder  466 

Page  of  Holder  Bible  467 

Joseph  John  Gurney  470 

Joseph  Grinnell   471 

William  Rotch   475 

Stephen  Grellet   476 

Joseph  Bassett  Holder   494 

Joseph  Swain   495 

Penn's  Treaty   505 

George  Washington   506 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier  616 

Albert  K.  Smiley  617 

Gove  Homestead   623 

Newport  Meeting  House  623 

Haverford  College   624 

Moses  Brown  School  629 

New  Bedford  Meeting  House  630 

Lynn  Mass-Meeting  House   630 

Philadelphia  Meeting  House   631 

Dr.  John  Fothergill   632 

Haverford  College   635 

Haverford  College   636 


Book  I 


THE  QUAKERS 
IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


*'Now  I  see  there  is  a  people  risen  up 
that  I  cannot  win  either  with  gifts,  honours, 
offices  or  places,  but  all  other  sects  and 
people  I  can." 

Oliver  Cromwell. 


CHAPTER  I. 


RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 
IN  ENGLAND  PREVIOUS  TO  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

All  the  profound  social,  political,  or  ecclesiastical  revolu- 
tionary movements  which  have  taken  place  during  historic 
times,  have  been  the  direct  outcome  of  some  deep-seated, 
fundamental  cause.  New  systems  of  government  have  been 
established  as  the  result  of  the  waning  patience  of  the  masses 
under  misrule,  countless  religious  beliefs  have  come  into 
being  on  the  crest  of  tidal  waves  of  disaffection  or  disap- 
pointment, and  kingdoms  have  crumbled  or  risen  under  the 
iron  hand  of  intolerance  or  the  rigid  justice  of  conscious 
right. 

The  crushing  of  the  first  Reformation  in  the  attack  of  the 
Crusaders  on  the  Albigensian  churches;  the  great  Reforma- 
tion and  the  establishment  of  Protestantism,  are  illustra- 
tions, and  the  story  of  the  rise  of  Protestantism  in  Great 
Britain  is  a  fascinating  and  constant  lure  to  the  reader  and 
lover  of  history. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  as  one  wanders  through  England 
with  its  splendid  architectural  monuments,  that  they  ori- 
ginated in  a  time  marked  by  a  low  moral  tone.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  reach  far  back  into  history  before  we  plunge 
into  this  black  cloud  of  ignorance,  intolerance  and  super- 
stition.   We  see  it  on  the  horizon  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

At  this  time,  when  men  worshipped  in  ecclesiastical 
palaces,  not  one  penitent  in  a  thousand  understood  the 
words  of  the  priest.    The  devout  Christian  who  could  read 


24    RELIIGOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 


an  English  translation  of  a  psalm  was  the  exception 
[Macaulay's  estimate  is  one  in  five  hundred].  Printing 
was  practically  unknown.  Copies  of  the  Bible  were  so 
rare  that  comparatively  few  priests  could  own  one,  while 
thousands  of  laymen  had  never  seen  the  book.  Such  were 
the  conditions  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  when 
the  world  was  controlled  by  the  few.  It  was  an  epoch  of 
intellectual  darkness  and  material  splendor,  broken  by  vag- 
rant rays  of  light.  It  is  a  self-evident  fact,  we  see  it  to  our 
shame  even  to-day,  that  the  masses  will  not,  cannot,  throw 
off  their  bondage  so  long  as  they  are  kept  ignorant. 

The  beams  of  light,  the  rays  of  promise  that  penetrated 
the  gloom  of  the  ante-Quaker  time,  were  men  of  extraord- 
inary intelligence  who  suddenly  appeared  on  the  forum 
of  Christian  endeavor.  In  the  fourteenth  century  such  a 
one  was  John  Wycliffe,  who  amazed  the  world  by  arraign- 
ing the  Pope  as  anti-Christ.  A  man  might  as  well  have 
signed  his  own  death  warrant.  But  Wycliffe  persisted,  and 
not  the  least  of  his  acts  was  the  English  translation  of 
the  Bible. 

Reformers  increased  from  this  time  on,  and  we  see  the 
Reformation  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  and  the  sus- 
tained movement  against  the  power  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Twenty  years  previous  to  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  Wil- 
liam Tyndale  published  a  revised  and  improved  Bible  in 
English,  and  protested  against  the  extraordinary  liberties 
taken  with  it.  After  the  Reformation  new  religious  zealots 
appeared  demanding  that  the  Episcopal  Church  should  be 
purged  of  the  papal  characteristics  which  were  still  retained, 
and  they  became  known  as  Puritans.  In  1559  came  the 
Act  of  Uniformity  and  the  establishment  of  the  use  of  the 


RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITONS  25 


revised  prayer  book.  The  so-called  Puritans  threw  off  all 
adherence  to  the  established  church,  and  despite  the  attempts 
of  the  church  to  prevent  them,  aided  by  the  Queen  and 
Parliament  and  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  they  deserted  it, 
formed  a  body  of  their  own,  established  so-called  Pres- 
byters instead  of  Bishops,  and  founded  Presbyterianism. 

All  these  vital  and  momentous  changes  were  elements  of 
unrest.  Ignorance  and  superstition  were  slowly  giving  way, 
as  from  time  to  time  some  brilliant  mind  appeared  to  move 
the  intellectual  status  of  the  time  a .  step  ahead.  New 
religious  parties  sprang  up  everywhere.  The  Anabaptists, 
the  antecedents  of  the  Baptists  and  Congregationalists, 
died  in  many  cases  for  their  convictions,  and  the  man  who 
declared  for  freedom  of  conscience  invited  death,  or  worse. 
The  divine  right  of  kings  held  in  these  days,  and  unwillingly 
the  numerous  religious  anti-state  and  church  movements  of 
the  period  became  the  initial  shoots  of  Democracy.  The 
world  had  been  asleep  for  centuries,  drugged  by  those  in 
power.  As  the  trainer  of  lions  drugs  the  big  cats  and  fear- 
lessly enters  the  cage,  so  the  potentates  of  state  and  church 
stupefied  the  masses  with  the  lethe  of  ignorance,  lived  in 
sensuous  luxury,  surrounded  by  extraordinary  magnificence, 
pomp  and  display,  hypnotizing  or  convincing  millions  into 
the  belief  that  they  were  rulers  and  masters  to  be  worship- 
ped by  Divine  authority.  It  is  almost  beyond  compre- 
hension that  the  intellectual  evolution  of  the  world  was 
checked  for  centuries  in  this  manner,  at  once  absurd  and 
pitiful. 

But  progress  was  only  held  in  abe}'ance.  It  could  not  be 
stopped  though  desperate  means  were  taken,  and  more  blood 
was  shed  by  alleged  Christians  in  insisting  upon  certain 


26    RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 


forms  of  Christianity  than  in  many  of  the  wars  of  history. 
Advanced  thinkers,  Dissenters,  as  they  were  called,  were 
persecuted,  driven  to  Holland  and  other  lands,  and  in  1620 
we  see  a  number,  including  Captain  Miles  Standish,  in 
desperation  sailing  for  America  on  the  ship  "Mayflower." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  avowed  object  of  some 
of  them  was  religious  liberty,  though  not  possibly  religious 
freedom  as  we  understand  the  term  to-day.  Yet  they  denied 
it  to  those  who  followed  them  in  ensuing  years.  Previous 
to  this,  in  1603  James  I.  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  England, 
and  notable  events  followed.  In  1611  the  authorized 
version  of  the  Bible  appeared,  and  due  to  different  interpre- 
tations, scores  of  sects  and  bodies  were  born,  denounced, 
hounded,  persecuted,  destroyed.  The  world  was  awaken- 
ing. But  James  I.  threw  the  weight  of  his  influence  upon 
the  side  of  what  the  Liberals  considered  the  formalism  of 
the  Roman  Church  existent  in  the  national  church  of  Eng- 
land. He  was  a  religious  despot  and  failed  to  realize  the 
smouldering  fires  beneath  his  feet.  He  stood  for  Absol- 
utism in  the  church  and  state  and  attempted  by  force  to 
smother  the  growing  demands  for  liberty  of  conscience. 

Equally  blind  to  the  distinct  and  ominous  shadows  on 
the  wall,  Charles  I.,  who  succeeded  him  in  1625,  became  the 
standard  bearer  of  his  father's  policies.  Of  all  the  Stuart 
kings  Charles  was  the  best,  so  far  as  his  private  life  was 
concerned,  but  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times,  he  practically 
signed  his  death  warrant  by  hounding  the  advanced  thinkers, 
always  widening  the  breach  between  the  established  church 
and  the  Puritans  and  other  Dissenters.  George  Fox  was  an 
infant  on  his  accession,  and  in  the  following  period,  we 
see  notable,  impressive  and  significant  figures  appearing  on 


RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  27 


the  stage,  marshaling  for  the  tragedies  of  coming  years. 
Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  later  Lord  Strafford,  Sir  John 
Elliott,  Archbishop  Laud,  Pym,  Hampden  and  Oliver 
Cromwell,  the  latter  entering  the  Long  Parliament  in  1640 
when  he  was  forty-one  years  of  age,  a  friend  of  the  future 
Quakers,  compared  to  many  other  rulers  of  England. 

The  obstinate  stand  of  Charles  I.  for  what  he  termed 
the  Divine  Right  of  Kings  to  determine  among  other  things 
the  religion  of  the  people,  was  the  menace  of  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  seventeenth  century  in  Great  Britain.  The  mar- 
tial tone  of  the  nation  was  low,  the  subject  of  greatest  im- 
portance was  religion;  as  seemingly  it  was  the  best  means 
by  which  the  masses  could  be  controlled  and  held  in  leash 
by  a  play  upon  their  fears,  ignorance  and  superstition.  The 
King  in  his  determination  to  force  the  religion  of  his  church 
upon  the  disciples  of  Knox,  appealed  to  Parliament,  conven- 
ing one  after  the  other. 

This  pre-Quaker  period  of  England  was  the  era  which 
was  preparing  men  for  an  existence  similar  to  that  enjoyed 
by  people  to-day.  It  was  so  pronounced  a  page  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  that  it  can  well  be  termed  the  Religious 
Renaissance  of  Enf^land.  It  was  the  turning  of  the  tides, 
and  Cromwell  was  to  be  the  civic  and  military  leader.  No 
more  interesting  era  can  be  found  in  English  history  than 
this,  which  has  been  food  for  philosophers  and  historians 
ever  since,  Charles  I.  running  amuck  politically,  drunk  with 
the  preposterous  idea  of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  Bishop 
Laud  leading  his  forces  as  a  general  in  the  army  of  the 
church.  Protestantism  at  a  low  ebb  in  Germany,  the  Cal- 
vinists  and  Lutherans  of  North  Germany  and  Denmark 
losing  ground  daily,  all  discouraging  features  to  the  insur- 
gents or  Puritans. 


28     RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 


On  the  other  hand,  Sir  John  Elliott  and  John  Pym  were 
fighting  the  king  in  Parliament,  striving  to  make  the  House 
of  Commons  or  the  people  the  authority.  The  Petition  of 
Right,  the  Star  Chamber,  the  arrest  of  Elliott,  his  confine- 
ment in  the  Tower,  his  death,  Laud's  labors  to  secure  ec- 
clesiastical absolutism  as  the  puppet  of  the  king,  all  stand 
out  as  stepping-stones  in  this  mighty  struggle  to  crush  lib- 
erty and  the  rights  of  man,  and  to  stem  the  flood  of  intel- 
lectual advancement.  The  English  and  Scotch  were  still 
terrified  by  the  ghost  of  Catholicism  which  stalked  across 
the  moors.  They  had  not  forgotten  that  "bloody  Queen 
Mary"  had  handed  over  the  kingdom  to  Rome  on  her  ac- 
cession, and  they  clung  to  the  doctrines  of  Calvin  with  a 
fervor  that  found  expression  when  Laud  attempted  to  intro- 
duce the  formalities  of  the  English  Church  into  Scotland. 

Following  came  the  so-called  "Bishops  Wars,"  and  al- 
ways the  King  and  his  bishops  preaching  the  same  doctrine 
and  forcing  it  upon  the  angered  people.  At  the  head  of 
the  Anglican  church  sat  the  King,  a  pseudo  divinity  in  his 
own  right,  insisting  upon  the  various  forms  inherited  from 
Rome,  which  were  so  many  red  rags  to  the  Dissenters.  The 
King  insisted  upon  having  his  consecrated  bishops,  who 
believed  in  apostolic  succession,  upon  his  priests  and  their 
methods,  in  fact,  the  shell  of  Catholicism  and  its  varied 
appurtenances. 

All  this  the  Dissenters  denounced  with  growing  fervor 
and  ferocity.  They  depised  the  so-called  idolatrous  forms 
and  rites,  as  those  of  the  Papists  en  masque^  and  as  we  have 
seen,  drew  their  swords,  and  under  the  banner  of  the  Inde- 
pendents carried  the  day. 

Following  the  downfall  of  Charles  and  his  execution  the 


RELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  29 


Presbyterians  came  into  full  power.  They  established  so- 
called  liberty  of  conscience,  and  affirmed  to  all  men  the 
right  to  worship  God  as  they  saw  fit.  If  this  had  been 
really  accomplished  by  these  iconoclasts  there  would  have 
been  but  little  use  for  future  agitators  or  missionaries;  but 
the  Dissenters  lost  their  heads ;  too  much  power  demoralized 
them,  and  we  find  them  gradually,  and  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously, falling  into  the  same  errors  for  which  they  had 
beheaded  Charles  the  First,  and  the  same  mistakes  the 
Puritans  mxade  in  America  later  on.  Instead  of  permit- 
ting full  liberty  of  conscience  they  began  to  urge  that  their 
own  interpretation  of  the  Bible  was  the  only  one  to  be 
accepted,  and  then  to  insist  upon  its  observance.  This 
naturally  resulted  in  a  new  body  of  Dissenters.  This  ex- 
traordinary attitude  reached  a  climax  when  Cromwell  was  in 
Scotland  with  his  army.  They  controlled  Parliament  and 
enacted  laws  which  were  as  unjust  and  unreasonable  as  any 
uttered  by  Charles  the  First  or  James.  One  specified  that 
any  one  who  should  continue  to  refuse  to  acknowledge  or 
accept  any  one  of  the  eight  articles  of  Faith,  should  be  sent 
to  the  block;  and  if  certain  sixteen  other  specified  articles 
were  rejected,  the  heretic  should  be  imprisoned.  Not  only 
this,  these  fanatical  Dissenters  conceived  and  perpetuated 
an  act  for  the  religious  conduct  of  all  the  churches  of  Eng- 
land and  Ireland  called  ''A  Form  of  Church  Government." 
At  his  very  worst  James  or  Charles  hardly  exceeded  this. 
As  a  natural  course,  the  extreme  Presbyterians  became  so 
intolerant  that  the  more  intelligent  of  their  own  party  and 
others  of  the  Independents  rose  against  them,  and  with 
Cromwell  at  their  head,  drove  them  from  power. 


CHAPTER  II. 


QUAKERISM -WHAT  IT  IS 

With  the  House  of  Commons  controlled  by  the  Inde- 
pendents, the  King  defeated  at  Naseby  in  the  second  Civil 
War  and  at  last  executed,  and  the  commonwealth  under 
Cromwell,  Great  Britain  seemed  assured  of  a  new  era  of 
political  and  religious  liberty.  A  signal  advance  had  been 
made,  but  the  country  was  by  no  means  at  peace.  It  pos- 
sessed what  of  all  the  great  nations  it  had  never  had, 
a  standing  army,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  bodies  of  men 
that  ever  bore  arms;  an  army  of  preachers  recruited  from 
the  ranks  of  those  who  had  been  fighting  against  the  estab- 
lished Church,  its  dogmas,  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  and 
all  that  went  with  the  elements  of  barbarism,  ignorance 
and  superstition. 

The  men  were  soldiers  armed  cap-a-pie^  the  most  effective 
army  any  nation  had  ever  seen;  yet  each  man  was  a  re- 
ligious enthusiast,  a  psalm-singing  protagonist  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  religious  freedom;  an  expounder  who  did  not  fail 
on  all  occasions  to  present  his  doctrines  and  enforce  them, 
if  necessary,  with  the  sword  and  pike.  They  were  com- 
manded by  Oliver  Cromwell,  one  of  England's  greatest 
men,  who  represented  the  intelligence  and  sturdy  qualities 
of  the  parties  which  for  years  had  been  fighting,  dying,  suf- 
fering martyrdom  for  liberty.  Carlyle  tells  us  that  Crom- 
well was  the  last  of  an  atrocious  system.  He  says  that 
Puritanism,  or  the  Cromwellian  era,  was  the  "last  glimpse 
of  the  godlike  vanishing  from  England;  conviction  and 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


31 


veracity  giving  place  to  hollow  cant  and  formalism.  .  .  . 
The  last  of  all  our  Heroisms."  .  .  .  But  I  consider 
Cromwell  the  first  of  a  new  system  that  finds  to-day  its 
expression  in  the  United  States  where  all  men  are  equal 
before  the  law. 

England  had  made  the  most  stupendous  step  forward  in 
her  history.  The  people  with  a  violent  wrench  had  thrown 
off  the  policy  of  ignorance  and  suppression  which  had  en- 
slaved them,  and  the  equilibrium  of  the  nation  had  been 
disturbed  by  a  heavy  blow.  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
Right  of  Kings  had  been  shattered  on  the  block  of  King 
Charles.  The  common  people  had  asserted  their  rights, 
but  it  was  evident  that  to  sustain  themselves  it  would  be  a 
life  and  death  struggle,  as  the  Royalists  without  a  king, 
the  old  nobility  without  representation  in  the  Lords,  the 
Episcopalians  and  Romanists  without  votes  or  representa- 
tion of  any  sort,  would  always  be  a  menace  on  the  civic  and 
ecclesiastical  horizon. 

The  King  was  dead,  but  the  Royalists  were  scheming  for 
office.  The  nation  at  one  step  had  become  a  military 
garrison.  The  Catholic  Church  and  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land still  existed  and  were  conducted  with  certain  rites 
extremely  distasteful  to  the  masses.  In  foreign  countries 
the  conduct  of  state  affairs  was  a  royal  pageant,  and  the 
world  appeared  to  be  given  over  to  sensuous  enjoyment 
and  display.  This  was  particularly  noticeable  in  1645-7 
or  about  the  time  of  the  King's  defeat  at  Naseby.  The 
Cavaliers  lived  the  lives  of  princes;  even  the  priests  and 
bishops  upheld  their  offices  with  magnificent  form,  and 
luxurious  living  found  among  the  nobles  its  maximum 
license. 


32 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


Amidst  all  this,  out  of  a  clear  sky  and  with  clarion  note, 
came  a  cry  of  Haiti  For  years  among  the  Dissenters,  or 
Puritans,  and  seemingly  countless  parties,  it  had  been  no- 
ticed that  a  number  of  men  and  women  of  high  intelligence 
and  generally  of  good  family,  had  held  extreme  views  on 
the  conduct  of  atfairs.  These  men  and  women  found  an 
exponent  in  the  personality  of  one  George  Fox,  the  founder 
of  Quakerism,  who  began  to  preach  in  public  in  1647,  two 
years  before  the  execution  of  Charles  the  First.  Fox  has 
been  termed  a  mystic,  and  the  Quakers  mystics.  They  have 
been  surrounded  with  a  fog-bank  of  misunderstanding  by 
ignorant  critics,  writers  and  historians.  But  there  was  noth- 
ing peculiar  about  these  people  except  that,  like  Cromwell, 
they  were  two  hundred  and  hfty  years  ahead  of  the  age  in 
which  they  lived.  They  had  the  temerity  to  attempt  to 
introduce  in  1647  the  general  ideas  of  morality  accepted 
in  1913,  and  Fox  pleaded  for  a  return  to  simple  and  prim- 
itive Christianity. 

Fox  and  his  friends  (they  called  themselves  Friends  pos- 
sibly because  the  Bible  exhorted  men  to  love  one  another) 
created  a  sensation,  as  they  boldly  denounced  the  frivolities 
of  the  day  and  preached  a  totally  different  life  and  religion, 
which,  very  briefly,  may  be  described  as  an  intelligent  at- 
tempt to  follow  the  example  of  Christ  as  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament;  not  on  the  Sabbath  alone,  but  to  carry 
Christian  methods  into  their  affairs,  and  into  the  conduct 
of  life  ever)^  day  in  the  week.  In  a  word,  religion  to  them 
was  not  a  matter  of  churches,  pageants,  sacraments,  cath- 
edrals, forms,  titles  and  armed  men  to  enforce  it,  but  a 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Friends  under  the  leadership  of  George  Fox  were 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS  33 


convinced  that  it  was  their  duty  to  call  a  halt,  and  warn 
the  whole  world  that  it  was  straying  from  the  real  essence 
of  the  Christian  religion.  To  say  that  they  created  a  sensa- 
tion but  faintly  describes  it,  but  the  reader  will  appreciate 
the  situation  when  he  or  she  remembers  that  the  new  in- 
terpretation of  Christianity  announced,  was  practically  that 
of  to-day  and  was  preached  to  an  ignorant,  licentious  and 
superstitious  people. 

The  Quakers  were  considered  mad  men  and  fanatics  of 
a  dangerous  type  because  they  demanded  a  return  to  a  sim- 
ple conduct  of  life.  They  illustrated  their  point  by  dress- 
ing simply  and  living  in  a  manner  that  would  not  excite 
the  envy  of  their  poorer  neighbors.  They  announced  that 
they  purposed  to  fight  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  prin- 
ciples, but  to  battle  under  the  banner  of  eternal  peace. 
Their  sword  was  the  blade  of  passive  resistance;  their  flag 
the  life  example  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Saviour  of  men. 

No  set  of  men  and  women  filled  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
what  they  believed  to  be  a  God-given  idea,  ever  met  with 
such  a  reception  outside  of  the  Inquisition,  yet  these  Quakers 
were  ahead  of  their  time  in  intelligence,  moral  advancement 
and  civic  righteousness.  There  is  scarcely  a  great  question 
of  the  nineteenth  or  twentieth  centuries  that  has  filled  the 
public  eye  as  a  momentous  reform,  that  was  not  a  part  of 
the  alleged  crimes  of  these  patriots  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, ^hey  demanded  arbitration  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago.  l^liey  labored  for  the  political  freedom  of  man 
in  164J.  ^hey  gave  their  women  equal  rights  two  and  a 
half  centuries  before  women  secured  the  right  to  vote  in 
an  American  state,  ^hey  denounced  war  as  legalized  mur- 
der and  a  remnant  of  barbarism^  and  in  1648  advocated  the 
3 


34 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


methods  of  peace  for  which  Andrew  Carnegie  and  the  Amer- 
ican Peace  Society  are  working  to-day. 

The  Quakers  of  the  seventeenth  century  denounced  slav- 
ery and  worked  for  its  downfall  two  hundred  and  sixty 
years  before  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  descendant  of  the  Quakers, 
signed  the  proclamation  of  freedom  in  America.  There  is 
hardly  a  great  reform  to-day  but  was  anticipated  by  these 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  in  derision  called 
Quakers  by  an  ignorant  justice  in  1650,  whose  sole  quali- 
fication for  fame  lies  in  the  fact  that  this  term  of  oppro- 
brium (now  a  badge  of  honor)  has  survived  the  ages. 

It  required  a  brave  man  to  announce  these  views  in  1647. 
It  required  a  man  with  a  God-given  courage  of  his  con- 
victions. Such  a  man  was  George  Fox.  It  is  a  singular  fact 
that,  while  Fox  was  denounced,  imprisoned,  described  as 
insane  and  a  fanatic,  his  sole  crime,  when  reduced  to  the 
essentials,  was  that  he  was  asking  the  people  of  England 
to  return  to  the  "simple  life"  that  is  preached  in  all  the 
churches  of  the  civilized  world  in  the  twentieth  century. 

All  the  criticism  of  the  Quakers  and  of  George  Fox  is 
silenced  by  the  fact  that  Quakerism  accomplished  the  reform 
intended.  It  awakened  the  nations  of  the  world.  It 
spurred  and  quickened  the  national  conscience  at  one  bound; 
it  established  a  philosophy  based  on  intellectual  and  moral 
achievement,  and  became  a  protagonist  for  all  that  is  best 
in  religious  life  to-day. 

Before  following  in  the  footsteps  of  George  Fox  and 
noting  the  evolution  of  his  idea  and  its  effect  upon  the 
world,  it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  doctrine  he  taught, 
which  caused  so  marked  a  sensation  in  England  and  aroused 
an  animosity  which  found  expression  in  a  martyrdom 
hardly  creditable. 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


35 


If  mysticism  is,  as  James  Freeman  Clark  says,  "the  belief 
that  man  can  come  into  union  with  the  Infinite  by  means 
of  a  wholly  passive  surrender  to  divine  influence,"  then 
George  Fox  was  an  English  mystic.  Emerson  says  in  one 
of  his  essays:  "I  desire  and  look  up  and  put  myself  in  the 
attitude  of  reception." 

I  recall  my  youth  in  a  notable  New  England  Friends 
community  established  by  Christopher  Holder  in  1656-7. 
The  impression  I  obtained  was  that  other  sects  depended 
upon  the  church  and  its  forms,  upon  ministers  who  were 
paid  to  perform  their  duties,  and  that  men  had  much  to  do 
with  dictating  what  was  right  or  wrong  by  the  appointment 
of  judges,  etc.  But  the  Friends  apparently  did  not  require 
outside  instruction.  As  a  child  I  often  attended  meetings 
where  a  congregation  of  two  or  three  hundred  sat  silent  an 
hour  and  a  half  and  were  supposed  to  think,  a  season  of 
self  analysis.  It  was  believed  that  rational  intelligent 
beings  were  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  God  or  religion, 
and  if  they  held  their  passions  in  check,  if  they  avoided  vice, 
if  they  followed  closely  the  Commandments  and  the  advice 
of  Christ  as  to  their  conduct  of  life,  they  would  receive 
wisdom  from  God  as  an  "inward  light." 

We  read  much  of  this  light.  Books  and  pamphlets  have 
been  written  on  it;  hundreds  of  men  and  women  have 
expounded  it,  and  the  result  has  been  that  the  very  simple 
religious  belief  of  the  Quakers  has  often  been  lost  in  a  sea 
of  conjecture  and  mysticism,  so  far  as  aliens  are  concerned. 

As  I  remember  the  religion  of  the  Quakers  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  it  was  the  "simple  life,"  the  example  of 
Christ.  In  plain  words,  the  followers  of  Fox  made  a 
strenuous  attempt  to  plan  their  lives  on  the  doctrines  of 


36  QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


the  New  Testament.  They  endeavored  to  live  like  Christ- 
ians every  hour^  and  to  see  that  their  fellows  did  the  same. 

This,  unquestionably,  was  the  Quaker  doctrine  of  Fox 
divested  of  the  incredible  assemblage  of  words  and  sentences 
that  apparently  was  necessary  in  expounding  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  whether  the  preacher  was  Quaker  or  Puritan, 
Presbyterian  or  Baptist.  This  was  Joseph  John  Gurney's 
interpretation.  He  says:  "I  should  not  describe  it  (Quak- 
erism) as  the  system  so  elaborately  wrought  out  by  Barclay; 
the  doctrines  or  maxims  of  Penn,  or  the  deep  refined  views 
of  Pennington.  I  should  call  it  the  religion  of  the  New 
Testament  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  without  diminution, 
without  addition  and  without  compromise." 

All  the  works  ever  written  on  Quakerism,  in  my  estima- 
tion, do  not  present  a  better  or  more  concise  definition  of 
the  life  work  and  central  idea  of  George  Fox  than  this. 

The  Quakers  made  no  parade  of  religion.  "The  inner 
light"  was  the  conscience  quickened  by  spiritual  communion, 
which  elevated  thoughts,  aims  and  desires,  self  analysis 
and  the  elimination  of  the  impure.  In  other  words,  the 
Friends  thought  good,  and  received,  as  any  man  or  woman 
can  who  has  the  intelligence  to  discern  the  difference  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  "the  peace  which  passeth  all  under- 
standing." 

I  am  particularly  desirous  to  present  the  essentials  of 
Quaker  doctrine  without  the  confusion  and  ambiguity  that 
has  surrounded  it,  and  which  has  often  made  it  unintelligi- 
ble. The  unthinking  public  is  inclined  to  grasp  at  "taking 
terms,"  "the  inner  light,"  "the  moving  of  the  spirit"  and 
"quaking,"  totally  misconstruing  the  real  conception  and 
embroiling  the  simple  meaning  in  worse  than  confusion. 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS  37 


The  Quaker  believed  that  God  was  omnipresent  and  that 
He  "revealed  himself  to  every  man  through  the  light  of 
Christ  in  the  heart."  When  they  speak  of  light  (and  it  is 
a  favorite  word,)  they  mean  the  spiritual  light,  the  awaken- 
ing, intellectually  and  spiritually,  that  every  man  has  dur- 
ing the  contemplation  of  the  Infinite.  It  was  a  mental  and 
spiritual  illumination  which  quickened  the  senses  and  made 
men  and  women  better.  When  they  sat  in  their  silent  meet- 
ings thinking  of  the  goodness  of  the  Creator,  endeavoring 
perhaps  to  purge  their  hearts  of  sin,  or  thoughts  of  evil,  the 
voice  of  God,  "the  light  within"  seemed  to  speak  to  them 
and  they  were  inspired  to  speak  or  to  preach.  Many  phil- 
osophers have  devoted  books  and  time  to  the  interpretation 
of  this  "inner  light"  of  the  early  Quakers,  but  it  finds  its 
analogue  in  the  conscience  of  good  men  and  pure  women 
responding  to  an  effectual  attempt  at  right  living,  right 
thinking. 

The  Japanese  have  a  most  effective  and  amusing  method 
of  teaching  moral  precepts.  It  consists  of  a  group  of  three 
monkeys.  One  holds  his  hand  over  his  eyes ;  another  to  his 
mouth;  another  stops  his  ears.  The  explanation  is:  see  no 
evil,  speak  no  evil,  hear  no  evil.  This  ivory  or  bronze  trin- 
ity should  be  in  every  home.  The  old  Quakers  endeavored 
to  see  no  evil,  to  speak  no  evil,  and  to  hear  no  evil,  and  they 
were  aided  in  this  consummation  by  the  "inner  light"  of  a 
clear  conscience.  The  pith  of  the  Quaker  doctrine  was  the 
saving  power  of  the  inner  light,  which  was  the  example  of 
Christ,  and  which  was  sure  to  illumine  those  who  followed 
His  footsteps.  There  was  nothing  obscure  about  it.  It  was 
the  simple  life  of  the  Savior  to  be  followed.  If  a  man  was 
good,  God  dwelt  in  him.   Fox  frequently  said:  "To  that  of 


38  QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


God  in  you  I  speak/'  "I  direct  men  to  the  light  of  Christ 
in  their  hearts." 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  the  beauty,  the  charm,  indeed  the 
fascination  this  idea  of  an  inner  light  had  for  the  followers 
of  George  Fox.  They  believed,  yes,  knew,  that  they  were 
in  touch  with  the  Giver  of  all  things,  and  that  the  light 
which  illumined  their  souls  was  the  word  of  the  living  God. 
It  is  little  wonder  that  George  Fox  was  exalted  and  his  con- 
verts went  into  the  highways  and  entered  churches  to  carry 
the  message  to  the  world,  or  that  they  went  to  their  death 
smiling  at  their  murderers,  or  lay  in  jail,  returning  when 
discharged  again  and  yet  again  to  the  non-resistant  warfare. 
A  finer  religious  conception  never  took  possession  of  man, 
and  his  mission  was  to  make  it  real  and  actual,  a  daily, 
hourly  thing  to  all  nations  and  to  all  men.  Something  in- 
conceivably precious  to  them  was  their  message  that  God 
spoke  not  to  the  saints,  ministers,  priests,  the  apostles  alone, 
but  to  the  soul  of  every  man,  woman  or  child  willing  to 
listen.  This  was  the  light  that  never  failed,  never  grew  dim 
in  the  heart  of  Friends. 

The  Quaker  ministers,  it  is  said,  waited  in  the  meetings 
until  the  "spirit  moved."  The  facts  are,  they  were  not  paid 
ministers;  they  were  not  supposed  to  prepare  their  sermons 
in  advance,  but  went  to  the  meeting  in  a  state  of  receptive 
mentality.  They  sat  in  the  silence  of  the  meeting  until  they 
felt  that  they  had  something  to  say,  then  rose  and  said  it, 
whether  it  was  the  quotation  of  a  Biblical  verse,  or  a  sermon, 
or  prayer. 

"And  so  I  find  it  well  to  come 
For  deeper  rest  to  this  still  room, 
For  here  the  habit  of  the  soul 


QUAKERISM,  W^AT  IT  IS 


39 


Feels  less  the  outer  world  control ; 

The  strength  of  mutual  purpose  pleads 

More  earnestly  our  common  needs; 

And  from  the  silence  multiplied 

By  these  still  forms  on  either  side, 

The  world  that  time  and  sense  have  known 

Falls  otf  and  leaves  us  God  alone. 

So  to  the  calmly  gathered  thought 

The  innermost  of  truth  is  taught. 

The  mystery,  dimly  understood. 

That  love  of  God  is  love  of  good; 

That  Book  and  Church  and  Day  are  given 

For  man,  not  God, — for  earth  not  heaven; 

The  blessed  means  to  holiest  ends. 

Not  masters,  but  benignant  friends; 

That  the  dear  Christ  dwells  not  afar. 

The  King  of  some  remoter  star, 

Listening,  at  times,  with  flattered  ear 

To  homage  wrung  from  selfish  fear. 

But  here,  amidst  the  poor  and  blind. 

The  bound  and  suffering  of  our  kind ; 

In  works  we  do,  in  prayers  we  pray, 

Life  of  our  life,  he  lives  today." 

Whittier. 

The  varied  interpr'^tations  of  the  Bible  have  resulted  in 
hundreds  of  sects  and  religions.  Some  believe  in  immersion, 
some  in  sprinkling.  To  the  Catholic  church,  form,  vestment 
is  essential  to  catch  and  impress  the  eye  with  the  splendor 
of  the  religion  it  represents.  So  we  find  George  Fox  as- 
tonishing the  seventeenth  centur\-  with  his  interpretation  of 
the  Bible,  at  once  startling  and  revolutionary.  What  the 
church  of  England  and  of  Rome  took  literally  he  conceived 
in  a  spiritual  sense,  and  briefly,  the  dearth  of  every  possible 
form  in  the  Quaker  meeting.    The  lack  of  baptismal  fonts, 


40 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


the  bread  and  wine  of  communion  and  other  features  signi- 
fies that  the  Quakers  interpreted  these  things  as  meant  in  a 
spiritual  sense.  They  read  the  life  of  Christ,  studied  the 
New  and  Old  Testaments  diligently,  accepted  Christ  as  sent 
to  redeem  the  world  and  copied  his  methods  as  nearly  as 
they  could. 

The  first  Declaration  of  Faith  by  Quakers  was  drawn  up 
by  Christopher  Holder,  believed  to  be  the  ancestor  of  the 
New  England  Holders.  It  was  written  in  Boston  jail  in 
1657  and  signed  by  Holder  and  his  fellow  prisoners  John 
Copeland  and  Richard  Doudney. 

CHRISTOPHER  HOLDER* S  DECLARATION 
OF  FAITH. 

"A  Declaration  of  Faith,  and  an  exhortation  to  Obedi- 
ence thereto,  issued  by  Christopher  Holder,  John  Copeland 
and  Richard  Doudney,  while  in  Prison  at  Boston  in  New 
England,  1657. 

"Whereas,  it  is  reported  by  them  that  have  not  a  bridle 
to  their  tongues,  that  we,  who  are  by  the  world  called 
Quakers,  are  blasphemers,  heretics  and  deceivers;  and  that 
we  do  deny  the  Scriptures,  and  the  truth  therein  contained ; 
therefore,  we,  who  are  here  in  prison,  shall  in  a  few  words, 
in  truth  and  plainness,  declare  unto  all  people  that  may  see 
this,  the  ground  of  our  religion,  and  the  faith  that  we  con- 
tend for,  and  the  cause  wherefore  we  suffer. 

'Therefore,  when  you  read  our  words,  let  the  meek  spirit 
bear  rule  and  weigh  them  in  the  equal  balance,  and  stand 
out  of  prejudice,  in  the  light  that  judge th  all  things,  and 
measureth  and  manifesteth  all  things. 

"As  (for  us)  we  do  believe  in  the  only  true  and  living  God, 
the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  made  the 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


41 


heavens  and  the  earth,  the  sea  and  all  things  in  them  con- 
tained, and  doth  uphold  all  things  that  he  hath  created  by 
the  word  of  his  power.  Who,  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers 
manners,  spake  in  times  past  to  our  fathers,  by  the  prophets, 
but  in  these  last  days  he  hath  spoken  unto  us,  by  his  Son, 
whom  he  hath  made  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  he  made 
the  world.  The  which  Son  is  that  Jesus  Christ  that  was 
born  of  the  Virgin;  who  suffered  for  our  offenses,  and  is 
risen  again  for  our  justification,  and  is  ascended  into  the 
highest  heavens,  and  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father.  Even  in  him  do  we  believe,  who  is  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  And  in  him  do 
we  trust  alone  for  salvation ;  by  whose  blood  we  are  washed 
from  sin;  through  whom  we  have  access  to  the  Father  with 
boldness,  being  justified  by  faith  in  believing  in  his  name. 
Who  hath  sent  forth  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  wit,  the  Spirit  of 
Truth,  that  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son;  by 
which  we  are  sealed  and  adopted  sons  and  heirs  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  From  the  which  Spirit  the  Scriptures  of 
truth  were  given  forth,  as,  saith  the  Apostle  Peter,  'Holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
The  which  were  written  for  our  admonition  on  whom  the 
ends  of  the  world  are  come ;  and  are  profitable  for  the  man 
of  God,  to  reprove,  and  to  exhort,  and  to  admonish,  as  the 
Spirit  of  God  bringeth  them  unto  him,  and  openeth  them  in 
him,  and  giveth  him  the  understanding  of  them. 

"So  that  before  all  (men)  we  do  declare  that  we  do  be- 
lieve in  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  according  as 
they  are  (declared  of  in  the)  Scriptures;  and  the  Scriptures 
we  own  to  be  a  true  declaration  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit;  in  (which)  is  declared  what  was  in  the  beginning, 
what  was  present,  and  was  to  come. 


42 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


"Therefore,  all  (ye)  people  in  whom  honesty  is,  stand 
still  and  consider.  Believe  not  them  that  say,  Report,  and 
we  will  report  it — that  say.  Come,  let  us  smite  them  with  the 
tongue ;  but  try  all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 
Again  we  say,  take  heed  of  believing  and  giving  credit  to 
reports;  for  know  that  the  truth  was  spoken  against,  and 
they  that  lived  in  it  were,  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  hated, 
persecuted  and  imprisoned,  under  the  names  of  heretics,  blas- 
phemers, and" — 

Here  part  of  the  paper  is  torn  off,  and  it  can  only  be 
known,  by  an  unintelligible  shred,  that  fourteen  lines  are 
lost.   We  read  again  as  follows : 

"That  showeth  you  the  secrets  of  your  hearts,  and  the 
deeds  that  are  not  good.  Therefore,  while  you  have  light,  be- 
lieve in  the  light,  that  ye  may  be  children  of  the  light ;  for, 
as  you  love  it  and  obey  it,  it  will  lead  you  to  repentance, 
bring  you  to  know  Him  in  whom  is  remission  of  sins,  in 
whom  God  is  well  pleased;  who  will  give  you  an  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  God,  an  inheritance  amongst  them  that 
are  sanctified.  For  this  is  the  desire  of  our  souls  for  all  that 
have  the  least  breathings  after  God,  that  they  may  come  to 
know  Him  in  deed  and  in  truth,  and  find  His  power  in  and 
with  them,  to  keep  them  from  falling,  and  to  present  them 
faultless  before  the  throne  of  his  glory;  who  is  the  strength 
and  life  of  all  them  that  put  their  trust  in  Him ;  who  uphold- 
eth  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power ;  who  is  God  over  all, 
blessed  forever.  Amen. 

"Thus  we  remain  friends  to  all  that  fear  the  Lord;  who 
are  sufferers,  not  for  evil  doing,  but  for  bearing  testimony  to 
the  truth,  in  obedience  to  the  Lord  God  of  life ;  unto  whom 
we  commit  our  cause ;  who  is  risen  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 


QUAKERISM,  WHAT  IT  IS 


43 


innocent,  and  to  help  him  that  hath  no  help  on  the  earth; 
who  will  be  avenged  on  all  his  enemies,  and  will  repay  the 
proud  doers. 

"Christopher  Holder, 
"John  Copeland, 
"Richard  Doudney, 
"From  the  House  of  Correction  the  ist  of  the  Eight 
Month,  1657,  in  Boston." 

This  Declaration  was  written  under  the  stress  of  terrible 
suffering  and  martyrdom,  the  prisoners  being  beaten,  and 
Holder  having  an  ear  cut  off.  The  Declaration  was  doubt- 
less issued  in  answer  to  some  charge  that  the  missionaries 
were  Roman  Catholics,  Idolators  or  worse. 


CHAPTER  III. 


GEORGE  FOX,  THE  FOUNDER  OF  QUAKERISM 
1624-1691 

Every  century  in  historic  times  has  been  marked  by  the 
appearance  of  some  striking  personality,  who  has  stood  alone 
as  the  protagonist  of  a  dominant  principle.  It  may  have 
been  some  profound  genius  in  the  arts,  in  music,  sculpture, 
philanthropy,  finance,  war,  peace,  religion  or  philosophy. 
Names  readily  suggest  themselves:  Hillel,  Confucius, 
Caesar,  Cicero,  Napoleon,  Calvin,  Luther,  Savonarola,  Saint 
Augustine,  Mozart,  Cromwell,  Darwin,  Huxley,  Washing- 
ton, Lincoln,  Roosevelt,  Carnegie. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  George  Fox  was  such  a  figure ; 
a  religious  enthusiast,  the  leader  who  rebuked  the  frivolities 
of  the  world;  who  endeavored  to  arrest  its  decadence,  and 
who  incidentally  founded  the  Society  of  Friends,  better 
known  as  Quakers.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  various  esti- 
mates of  his  intellectual  status.  James  PVeeman  Clark,  an 
American  historian,  says:  "Fox,  judged  by  his  writings,  was 
a  man  of  poor  intellect;  narrow,  meagre,  without  the  least 
touch  of  fancy  or  imagination.  It  was  by  the  depth  and  con- 
centration of  his  mind,  not  by  any  mental  affluence,  that 
he  accomplished  so  much." 

Bancroft  considers  that  George  Fox  produced  a  philos- 
ophy of  the  highest  standard,  ranking  it  with  the  doctrines 
of  Plato  and  Descartes  whose  intellectual  status  will  scarcely 
be  questioned.  Bancroft  compared  the  ideas  of  the  Quaker 
with  those  in  the  "profound  eloquence  of  Rousseau,"  "the 


OLD  EXGLISH  MEETIXG  HOUSES 
Leominster  (Upper) 
Tewheshurg  (1823) 


GEORGE  FOX 
From  the  Chinn  Painting 


GEORGE  FOX 


45 


masculine  philosophy  of  Kant,"  and  "the  poetry  of  Schiller, 
Coleridge,  Lamartine  and  Wordsworth;"  hence  he  saw  both 
fancy  and  imagination  in  the  religious  philosophy  of  the 
great  Quaker.  There  is  scarcely  a  foul  epithet  known  in  the 
language  that  was  not  applied  to  George  Fox  by  his  enemies 
and  those  who  feared  him.  Many  cheerful  critics  in  1650, 
and  from  then  until  1690,  consoled  themselves  with  the 
thought  that  he  was  an  idiot;  yet  not  harmless,  and  to  be 
crushed,  as  he  had  an  extraordinary  following  recruited 
from  the  ranks  of  England's  best  citizens. 

William  Penn,  the  son  of  Sir  Admiral  William  Penn,  was 
a  notable  illustration.  William  Penn's  impression  of  George 
Fox  is  interesting.    He  says: 

"I  write  by  knowledge  and  not  report,  and  my  witness  is 
true,  having  been  with  him  for  weeks  and  months  together .  . 
and  that  by  night  and  by  day,  by  sea  and  by  land,  in  this  and 
foreign  countries;  and  I  can  say  I  never  saw  him  out  of  his 
place,  or  not  a  match  for  every  occasion. 

"He  was  of  an  innocent  life,  no  busy-body,  nor  self-seeker, 
neither  touchy  nor  critical.  So  meek,  contented,  modest, 
easy,  steady,  tender,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  be  in  his  company. 
A  most  merciful  man,  as  ready  to  forgive  as  unapt  to  take  or 
give  offense. 

"He  had  an  extraordinary  gift  in  opening  the  Scriptures. 
But  above  all  he  excelled  in  prayer — the  most  reverent  frame 
I  ever  felt  or  beheld,  I  must  say,  was  his  in  prayer — and 
truly  it  was  a  testimony,  he  knew  and  lived  nearer  to  the 
Lord  than  other  men;  for  they  that  know  Him  most  will  see 
most  reason  to  approach  Him  with  reverence  and  fear." 

"In  all  things,"  Penn  adds,  "he  acquitted  himself  like  a 
man,  yea,  a  strong  man,  a  new  and  heavenly-minded  man. 


46 


GEORGE  FOX 


A  divine,  and  a  Naturalist,  and  all  of  God  Almighty's 
making." 

Among  Friends  Thomas  Ellwood  was  one  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced and  intellectual  of  the  early  converts ;  a  man  of  high 
culture  and  a  good  judge  of  men.  He  has  left  us  his  im- 
pression of  George  Fox  in  the  following: 

"I  knew  him  not  till  the  year  1660 :  from  that  time  to  the 
time  of  his  death,  I  knew  him  well,  conversed  with  him 
often,  observed  him  much,  loved  him  dearly,  and  honoured 
him  truly ;  and  upon  good  experience  can  say,  he  was  indeed 
an  heavenly-minded  man,  zealous  for  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
and  preferred  the  honour  of  God  before  all  things. 

"He  was  valiant  for  the  truth,  bold  in  asserting  it,  patient 
in  suffering  for  it,  unwearied  in  labouring  in  it,  steady  in  his 
testimony  to  it,  immovable  as  a  rock.  Deep  he  was  in  di- 
vine knowledge,  clear  in  opening  heavenly  mysteries,  plain 
and  powerful  in  preaching,  fervent  in  prayer.  He  was 
richly  endowed  with  heavenly  wisdom,  quick  in  discerning, 
sound  in  judgment,  able  and  ready  in  giving,  discreet  in 
keeping  counsel,  a  lover  of  righteousness,  an  encourager  of 
virtue,  justice,  temperance,  meekness,  purity,  chastity, 
modesty,  humility,  charity  and  self-denial  in  all,  both  by 
word  and  example.  Graceful  he  was  in  countenance,  manly 
in  personage,  grave  in  gesture,  courteous  in  conversation, 
weighty  in  communication,  instructive  in  discourse,  free  from 
affectation  in  speech  and  carriage.  A  severe  reprover  of  hard 
and  obstinate  sinners,  a  mild  and  gentle  admonisher  of  such 
as  were  tender,  and  sensible  of  their  failings;  not  apt  to 
resent  personal  wrongs;  easy  to  forgive  injuries;  but  zealous, 
earnest  where  the  honour  of  God,  the  prosperity  of  truth,  the 
peace  of  the  church  were  concerned.     Very  tender,  com- 


GEORGE  FOX 


47 


passionate,  and  pitiful  he  was  to  all  that  were  under  any 
sort  of  affliction;  full  of  brotherly  love,  full  of  fatherly  care, 
for  indeed  the  care  of  the  churches  of  Christ  was  daily  upon 
him,  the  prosperity  and  peace  whereof  he  studiously  sought. 
Beloved  he  was  of  God,  beloved  of  God's  people;  and 
(which  was  not  the  least  part  of  his  honour)  the  common 
butt  of  all  apostates'  envy,  whose  good  notwithstanding  he 
earnestly  sought." 

Cromwell,  unconsciously  perhaps,  paid  a  signal  tribute  to 
George  Fox  when  he  said,  "Now  I  see  there  is  a  people 
risen  that  I  cannot  win  with  gifts,  honours,  offices  or  places; 
but  all  other  sects  and  people  I  can."  I  might  stop  here  and 
let  these  lines  stand  as  the  best  definition  of  the  results  of 
Quakerism  ever  penned.  They  describe  the  Quakers  in 
1647;  they  describe  them  to-day  in  every  land. 

In  appearance  George  Fox  was  a  fine  specimen  of  vigorous 
manhood.  He  was  tall,  athletic,  with  clean-cut  features 
and  eyes  so  brilliant  and  searching  that  more  than  once  they 
brought  out  protests  from  those  who  could  not  withstand  his 
"piercing  gaze."  George  Fox  had  what  is  known  to-day  as 
personal  magnetism,  so  seemingly  essential  to  most  public 
speakers.  Blaine  possessed  it.  Napoleon,  Patrick  Henry, 
Ingersoll  and  most  of  the  great  and  successful  leaders  of  all 
times.  Not  only  this,  George  Fox  had,  to  an  extraordinary 
degree,  the  power  of  impressing  his  auditors,  swaying  them 
by  his  words,  gestures,  intonation  or  meaning.  He  filled 
them  with  religious  enthusiasm,  raised  them  to  a  high  pin- 
nacle of  religious  ecstasy  or  at  will  cast  them  into  the  abys- 
mal deeps  of  mental  distress. 

The  secret  of  his  wonderful  power  was  his  familiarity  with 
the  Bible.    When  called  on  suddenly  by  troopers,  when 


48 


GEORGE  FOX 


preaching  against  war,  he  had  all  the  Biblical  authorities  at 
his  tongue's  end.  When  sixty  priests  challenged  him  on  dis- 
puted points  he  dumfounded  them  with  the  readiness  of  his 
replies,  and  judge,  soldier,  layman,  priest,  he  met  in  the  same 
way,  crushing  them  by  the  unanswerable  quality  of  his  quo- 
tations. Not  only  this,  he  had  an  extraordinary  faculty  for 
presenting  his  facts  and  theories  as  telling,  convincing  and 
unanswerable  arguments.  He  did  not  indulge  in  sophistry, 
but  dealt  out  his  warnings  in  heavy  body  blows  which  laid 
low  the  ignorant  and  captivated  the  sense  of  justice  of  the 
best  educated  men  in  England  as  well. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  George  Fox  was  merely  a 
seventeenth  century  revivalist,  as  he  scorned  the  mannerisms 
of  the  professional  preacher.  He  believed  that  God  had  given 
him  a  message  to  the  world,  and  it  was  his  purpose  to 
deliver  it  to  the  death.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  protagonist 
of  a  new  religion  or  sect.  In  all  probability,  he  had  no  idea 
at  first  of  creating  a  new  and  distinct  cult.  His  sole  object 
was  to  call  the  attention  of  all  the  world  to  the  fact  that  their 
excesses,  their  rites,  their  wars,  their  killings,  their  sensuous 
pageants  and  splendors  of  living,  their  assumption  of  Divine 
rights  to  rule  were  fundamentally  wrong.  It  is  true  that  he 
became  the  founder  of  the  Quakers,  but  it  was  an  unforeseen 
result  and  he  left  this  and  the  moulding  of  the  philosophy 
and  its  formulation  to  other  hands:  Barclay  of  the 
"Apology,"  Penn,  and  others.  He  delivered  the  message, 
they  took  it  up  and  prepared  it  for  perpetuation  down  the 
long  reaches  of  the  ages. 

George  Fox  came  by  his  profound  religious  nature  by  in- 
heritance. His  father,  Christopher  Fox,  of  Drayton  in  Clay, 


GEORGE  FOX 


49 


England,  was  intensely  religious  in  a  sane  way,  and  George 
Fox  tells  us  that  his  mother,  of  the  family  of  Lagos,  came 
from  a  stock  of  martyrs.  All  this  left  its  impression  on  the 
son,  who  was  bom  in  the  decade  of  Shakespeare's  death, 
1616,  or  1624,  the  time  of  Bacon.  There  were  few  prom- 
inent men  of  the  time  who  did  not  know  him  or  had  not 
received  his  advice  or  admonitions,  which  were  addressed 
either  in  person  or  in  writing,  to  every  prominent  ruler, 
from  the  Pope  to  Cromwell  or  the  kings  of  France,  and 
other  countries. 

At  a  ver}'  early  age  he  attracted  attention  for  his  sedate- 
ness  and  dignity.  In  his  Journal  he  says:  '"I  knew  purity 
and  righteousness  because  I  was  taught  how  to  walk  so  as  to 
be  kept  pure."  The  child  was  born  to  his  special  mission. 
He  was  a  religious  enthusiast  as  truly  as  some  children  are 
bom  musicians,  mathematicians  or  great  artists.  Fie  had  the 
faculty  of  concentration  to  a  remarkable  degree;  he  never 
lost  sight  of  the  main  issue.  This  peculiarity  is  noticed  in 
his  Journal,  ''he  hews  to  the  line,''  and  little  outside  of  his 
religious  experiences  is  found  in  this  extraordinary-  work 
though  he  lived  in  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  tumult- 
uous periods  in  English  history.  Freeman  Clark  refers  to 
this  and  sees  in  it  a  reflection  upon  his  intelligence.   He  says: 

"He  saw,  or  might  have  seen  the  rise,  triumph,  defeat,  and 
reappearance  of  British  Constitutional  Liberty;  the  tyranni- 
cal acts  of  Charles  I.;  the  resistance  of  Hampden;  the  Eng- 
lish Revolution;  the  battles  of  Marston  Moor  and  Xaseby; 
the  Long  Parliament ;  the  protectorates  of  Cromwell  and  his 
son;  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.;  the  reign  of  James  II.; 
and  the  Revolution  of  1688.  All  occurred  under  his  eyes, 
4 


so 


GEORGE  FOX 


and  he  does  not  seem  to  have  noticed  any  of  them.*  He  was  a 
contemporary  of  Milton,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Tillotson,  Locke, 
Newton,  Leibnitz,  but  you  would  never  know  from  his  writ- 
ings that  such  men  had  existed.  With  their  work  he  had 
nothing  to  do,  but  his  own  work  he  did  nobly.  In  an  age  of 
speculative  religion,  of  opinion  and  profession,  he  taught  the 
need  of  a  profound  personal  acquaintance  with  God  as  the 
all  in  all.  He  taught  that  all  can  have  this  light,  that  it  comes 
to  all,  and  can  be  seen  by  all  if  they  do  not  suffer  their  atten- 
tion to  be  distracted  by  outward  things.  From  this  simple 
idea  of  the  inward  light  he  deduced  all  the  other  doctrines 
which  Barclay  and  Penn  afterward  elaborated  into  the  com- 
plete system  of  Quakerism.  It  is  noticeable  in  reading  the 
life  of  Fox  that  so  lofty  a  system  has  originated  in  so  small 
a  mind." 

This  critical  historian  misses  the  point  that  Fox  was  not 
keeping  an  historic  diary,  nor  was  he  a  Pepys ;  he  was  relating 
solely  his  own  religious  experience  and  that  of  the  Friends. 
No  one  was  better  aware  what  was  going  on  in  politics, 
literature  and  government  than  George  Fox.  There  was 
hardly  a  jail  that  he  did  not  test.  He  and  his  friends 
were  constantly  before  the  king,  Cromwell  and  the  author- 
ities, and  it  was  entirely  due  to  his  wide  range,  as  well  as 
his  concentration,  that  he  won  the  battle  for  liberty  of  con- 
science with  the  sole  weapon  of  passive  resistance.  "The 
Lord  taught  me,"  says  Fox,  "to  be  faithful  in  all  things  and 
to  act  faithfully  in  two  ways:  viz.,  inwardly  to  God,  and 

*The  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  M.  A.,  says:  "He  who  desires  to 
understand  the  real  history  of  the  English  people  during  the  seven- 
teenth, eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  should  read  most  carefully 
three  books:  George  Fox's  Journal,  John  Wesley's  Journal,  and  J.  H. 
Newman's  Apologia." 


GEORGE  FOX 


51 


outwardly  to  man,  and  to  keep  yea  and  nay  in  all  things." 

The  boy  was  originally  intended  for  the  priesthood,  but 
he  was  eventually  placed  with  a  business  man,  a  dealer  in 
shoes,  cattle  and  wool,  and  Fox  became  an  expert  in  hand- 
ling the  latter.  During  all  this  time  he  had  a  strong  pre- 
dilection for  religion  and  reforms,  and  after  his  first  ex- 
perience with  some  friends  who  were  drinking  and  toasting 
one  another,  he  was  led  to  think  more  seriously  on  these 
subjects. 

At  this  early  period  a  temperance  advocate  would  have 
been  considered  a  curiosity  and  an  anomaly,  yet  we  find  Fox 
started  this  campaign  of  prohibition  in  1643  when  but  nine- 
teen years  of  age.  About  this  time  he  became  much 
troubled  as  to  religious  matters  and  the  evils  of  the  day,  and 
hoping  to  understand  them  he  began  to  question  ministers 
and  to  travel  about  the  country  in  a  very  distressed  frame 
of  mind.  Religion  was  now  the  subject  of  violent  discussion 
and  dispute.  Traveling  over  England  George  Fox  listened 
to  all  sides  and  to  all  people  and  was  often  in  despair.  He 
went  to  London  and  visited  an  uncle,  a  Baptist;  then,  re- 
turning, he  wandered  about  the  country,  talking  to  priests, 
ministers,  laymen  and  laywomen,  but  finding  no  peace  or 
spiritual  comfort.  After  consulting  a  priest  named  Tam- 
worth,  he  writes  that  he  found  him  a  "hollow  cask;"  not 
exactly  complimentary,  but  characteristic  of  the  quaint 
phraseology  of  the  time. 

The  "inner  light"  came  to  him  early  in  his  career,  as  he 
writes:  "At  another  time  it  was  opened  to  me  that  God 
who  made  the  world  did  not  dwell  in  temples  made  with 
hands."  He  was  constantly  engaged  in  self  examination, 
turning  over  and  over  in  his  mind  the  questions  of  virtue, 


52 


GEORGE  FOX 


right  and  wrong,  and  receiving,  as  he  firmly  believed,  direct 
answers  from  God  through  the  ''inner  light,"  which  he 
recognized  later  on. 

To  appreciate  the  mental  trials  and  tribulations  of  George 
Fox  at  this  early  period,  one  must  follow  his  movements 
closely.  The  war  was  in  progress;  the  king  had  been  de- 
feated at  Naseby;  Presbyterianism  had  been  established  as 
a  militant  power  or  sect,  and  Fox  was  wandering  about  the 
country;  now  being  urged  to  enter  the  army,  but  ever  grop- 
ing in  the  dark,  seeking  to  satisfy  a  gnawing  conscience. 
One  day  in  his  travels  he  reached  a  Baptist  meeting  at 
Broughton  in  Leicestershire,  and  here  doubtless  spoke  in 
meeting  for  the  first  time.  He  says:  "A  report  went  abroad 
of  me  that  I  was  a  young  man  who  had  a  discerning  spirit ; 
whereupon  many  came  to  me  from  far  and  near,  professors, 
priests  and  people.  The  Lord's  power  broke  forth,  and  I 
had  great  openings  and  prophecies,  and  spoke  unto  them  of 
the  things  of  God,  which  they  heard  with  attention  and 
silence,  and  went  away  and  spread  the  fame  thereof.  Then 
came  the  tempter  and  set  upon  me  again,  charging  me,  that 
I  had  sinned  against  the  Holy  Ghost;  but  I  could  not  tell 
in  what.  Then  Paul's  condition  came  before  me,  how,  after 
he  had  been  taken  up  into  the  third  heavens,  and  seen  things 
not  lawful  to  be  uttered,  a  messenger  of  Satan  was  sent  to 
buffet  him.  Thus  by  the  power  of  Christ  I  got  over  that 
temptation  also." 

With  growing  spiritual  courage  he  now  passed  through 
England,  praying,  preaching  and  raising  his  voice  in  rebuke 
against  the  many  vanities  of  the  world  and  the  degeneracy 
of  the  times.  Arriving  at  the  town  of  Mansfield  he  began 
what  was  perhaps  the  first  attempt  of  labor  reform,  of  the 


GEORGE  FOX 


53 


nineteenth  century  sort,  England  had  ever  experienced.  He 
approached  the  justices  in  court  and  urged  them  to  see  that 
laborers,  men  and  women,  were  not  oppressed,  particularly 
in  the  matter  of  wages.  Then  he  exhorted  laborers  and 
servants  to  do  their  full  duties  to  their  masters.  At  this 
time  Fox  had  undoubtedly  a  supersensitive  conscience.  He 
recognized  with  remarkable  intuition  for  the  time  the  fact 
that  evils  were  being  committed.  He  felt  a  strong  compelling 
conscientious  desire  not  only  to  point  them  out,  but  the  way 
to  overcome  them,  the  spiritual  remedy. 

This  urging  of  the  conscience,  this  impelling  moral  force 
he  considered  the  direct  word  of  God  speaking  in  his  heart 
and  soul,  and  so  convinced  was  he  that  this  was  real  and 
true  that  he  never  disobeyed  it.  He  was  now  in  a  state  of 
great  religious  enthusiasm  and  exaltation,  and  he  began  to 
have  many  followers.  His  arguments  were  appealing  and 
convincing  to  many.  Thus  he  says,  'T  travelled  in  the  Lord's 
service  as  he  led  me."  In  the  Vale  of  Beavor  he  observed 
that  lawyers,  doctors  and  priests  were  open  to  criticism,  so 
he  began  to  show  them  how  to  conduct  their  professions 
"satisfactory  to  the  Lord."  As  day  after  day  went  by  he 
took  up  other  evils  with  a  remarkable  prescience  for  reforma- 
tive measures.   He  says : 

"About  this  time  I  was  sorely  exercised  in  going  to  their 
courts  to  cry  for  justice,  in  speaking  and  writing  to  judges 
and  justices  to  do  justly;  in  warning  such  as  kept  publick 
houses  for  entertainment,  that  they  should  not  let  people 
have  more  drink  than  would  do  them  good;  in  testifying 
against  wakes,  feasts,  may-games,  sports,  plays,  and  shows, 
which  trained  up  people  to  vanity  and  looseness,  and  led 
them  from  the  fear  of  God;  and  the  days  set  forth  for  holi- 


54 


GEORGE  FOX 


days  were  usually  the  times  wherein  they  most  dishonoured 
God  by  these  things.  In  fairs  also,  and  in  markets,  I  was 
made  to  declare  against  their  deceitful  merchandise,  cheat- 
ing and  cozening;  warning  all  to  deal  justly,  to  speak  the 
truth,  to  let  their  yea  be  yea,  and  their  nay  be  nay,  and  to  do 
unto  others  as  they  would  have  others  do  unto  them;  fore- 
warning them  of  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord, 
which  would  come  upon  them  all.  I  was  moved  also  to  cry 
against  all  sorts  of  musick,  and  against  the  mountebanks 
playing  tricks  on  their  stages;  for  they  burthened  the  pure 
life,  and  stirred  up  people's  minds  to  vanity.  I  was  much  ex- 
ercised too  with  school-masters  and  school-mistresses,  warn- 
ing them  to  teach  children  sobriety  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
that  they  might  not  be  nursed  and  trained  up  to  lightness, 
vanity,  and  wantonness.  I  was  made  to  warn  masters  and 
mistresses,  fathers  and  mothers  in  private  families,  to  take 
care  that  their  children  and  servants  might  be  trained  up  in 
the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  that  themselves  should  be  therein 
examples  and  patterns  of  sobriety  and  virtue  to  them." 

The  civil  war  of  1648  was  raging,  and  Fox  was  preaching 
peace  in  the  highways.  Cromwell,  a  militant  preacher  and 
reformer,  was  leading  the  Roundheads  to  battle  under  the 
banner  of  religious  reform.  Fox  now  began  to  attract  large 
crowds,  and  as  though  to  accumulate  trouble,  he  refused  to 
remove  his  hat,  which  offended  many.  He  was  thrown  into 
jail  at  Nottingham  for  speaking  in  a  church,  but  he  con- 
verted the  sheriff,  John  Reckless,  who  turned  his  home  into 
a  meeting-house,  to  the  amazement  of  the  populace  and  the 
rage  of  the  church  authorities. 

During  this  period  in  England  a  prisoner  in  jail  had  little 
attention  paid  to  him,  physically  or  morally,  and  George 


GEORGE  FOX 


55 


Fox  became  the  pioneer  prison  reformer.  He  entered  jails, 
when  he  was  not  cast  into  them,  to  plead  with,  and  preach 
to,  the  prisoners,  as  Elizabeth  Fry  did  after  him,  and  the 
authorities  often  thought  he  was  mad.  He  preached  in  the 
Coventry  prison ;  was  stoned  out  of  the  market  of  Bos  worth 
for  preaching  in  the  chapel,  and  later  was  arrested  at  Derby 
and  sentenced  to  the  House  of  Correction  for  six  months  as 
a  blasphemer.  The  mittimus,  one  of  the  first  public  docu- 
ments relating  to  Friends  in  England,  was  as  follows : 

''To  the  master  of  the  house  of  correction  in  Derby, 
greeting. 

"We  have  sent  you  here  withal  the  bodies  of  George  Fox, 
late  of  Mansfield,  in  the  county  of  Nottingham,  and  John 
Fretwell,  late  of  Staniesby,  in  the  county  of  Derby,  hus- 
bandman, brought  before  us  this  present  day,  and  charged 
with  avowed  uttering  and  broaching  of  divers  blasphemous 
opinions,  contrary  to  a  late  act  of  parliament;  which,  upon 
their  examination  before  us,  they  have  confessed.  These 
are  therefore  to  require  you  forthwith,  upon  sight  thereof, 
to  receive  them  the  said  George  Fox  and  John  Fretwell  into 
your  custody,  and  them  therein  safely  to  keep  during  the 
space  of  six  montlis,  without  bail  or  main-prize,  or  until  they 
shall  find  sufficient  security  to  be  of  the  good  behaviour,  or 
be  thence  delivered  by  order  from  ourselves.  Hereof  you 
are  not  to  fail.  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals  this  30th 
day  of  October  1650. 

"Ger.  Bennet, 
"Nath.  Barton." 

Among  the  incisive  blows  struck  at  the  Ouakeis  was  the 
government  act  declaring  their  marriages  illegal.  The 
Friends  entertained  the  belief  that  marriage  was  an  ordi- 


56 


GEORGE  FOX 


nance  of  God ;  that  the  intervention  of  a  clergyman  was  not 
necessary.  The  bride  and  groom  stood  up  in  the  meeting  in 
the  presence  of  the  audience  and  declared  their  intention  of 
taking  each  other  as  husband  and  wife.  They  then  signed 
the  wedding  certificate,  which  was  in  turn  signed  by  the 
audience.  Hence,  instead  of  one  or  two  witnesses,  there  were 
often  fifty,  one  hundred  or  more.  The  Quakers  made  every 
attempt  to  have  this  law  changed,  and  in  1661  Judge  Archer 
declared  in  favor  of  the  legality  of  such  marriages,  which 
came  as  a  just  relief,  as  the  question  of  legitimacy  of  chil- 
dren, questions  of  property,  were  being  raised  by  their 
enemies. 

One  of  the  remarkable  characteristics  of  George  Fox  was 
his  perfect  familiarity  with  the  Bible  and  his  ability  to  call 
up  any  verse  or  authority.  This  was  well  shown  when  he 
was  questioned  and  criticised  by  Lady  Fairfax,  Dr.  Crad- 
dock  and  several  priests,  one  of  whom  said,  "You  marry,  but 
I  know  not  how."  Fox,  who  did  not  pose  as  an  expert  in  the 
field  of  literary  endeavor,  being  merely  a  systematist  in  his 
collection  of  correct  references,  replied,  "It  may  be  so:  but 
why  dost  thou  not  come  and  see?"  He  asked  him  also, 
"Where  do  you  read,  from  Genesis  to  Revelations,  that 
ever  any  priest  did  marry  any'?"  Fox  said,  "I  wished  him 
to  shew  me  some  instance  thereof,  if  he  would  have  us  come 
to  them  to  be  married;  for,  said  I,  'Thou  hast  excommuni- 
cated one  of  my  friends  two  years  after  he  was  dead,  about 
his  marriage.  And  why  dost  thou  not  excommunicate  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  Boaz,  and  Ruth*?  For  we  do  not  read  that 
they  were  ever  married  by  the  priests;  but  they  "took  one 
another  in  the  assemblies  of  the  righteous,  in  the  presence  of 
God  and  His  people;"  and  so  do  we.    So  that  we  have  all 


GEORGE  FOX 


57 


the  holy  men  and  women  that  the  Scriptures  speak  of  in 
this  practice,  on  our  side.'  Much  discourse  we  had;  but 
when  he  found  he  could  get  no  advantage  on  me,  he  went 
away  with  his  company." 

Marriage  is  again  referred  to  by  Fox.   He  says : 

"From  hence  I  went  to  Whitby:  and,  having  visited 
friends  there,  passed  to  Burlington,  where  I  had  another 
meeting.  From  thence  to  Oram,  where  I  had  another  meet* 
ing;  and  thence  to  Marmaduke  Storr's,  and  had  a  large  meet- 
ing at  a  constable's  house,  on  whom  the  Lord  had  wrought 
a  great  miracle. 

"Next  day  two  friends  being  to  take  each  other  in 
marriage,  there  was  a  very  great  meeting,  which  I  attended. 
I  was  moved  to  open  the  state  of  our  marriages,  declaring, 
'How  the  people  of  God  took  one  another  in  the  assemblies 
of  the  elders;  and  that  it  was  God  who  joined  man  and 
woman  together  before  the  fall.  And  though  men  had  taken 
upon  them  to  join  in  the  fall,  yet  m  the  restoration  it  is 
God's  joining  that  is  the  right  and  honourable  marriage;  but 
never  any  priest  did  marry  any,  that  we  read  of  in  the 
scriptures,  from  Genesis  to  Revelations.'  Then  I  shewed 
them  the  duty  of  m.an  and  wife,  how  they  should  serve  God, 
being  heirs  of  life  and  grace  together." 

Again,  when  establishing  a  monthly  meeting  in  Wiltshire, 
he  said: 

"After  we  had  visited  friends  in  the  city,  I  was  moved  to 
exhort  them  to  bring  all  their  marriages  to  the  men's  and 
women's  meetings,  that  they  might  lay  them  before  the  faith- 
ful ;  that  care  might  be  taken  to  prevent  such  disorders  as  had 
been  committed  by  some.  For  many  had  gone  together  in 
marriage  contrary  to  their  relation's  minds ;  and  some  yoimg. 


58 


GEORGE  FOX 


raw  people,  that  came  among  us,  had  mixed  with  the  world. 
Widows  had  married  without  making  provision  for  their 
children  by  their  former  husbands,  before  their  second  mar- 
riage. Yet  I  had  given  forth  a  paper  concerning  marriages 
about  the  year  1653,  when  truth  was  but  little  spread,  ad- 
vising friends,  who  might  be  concerned  in  that  case.  That 
they  might  lay  it  before  the  faithful  in  time,  before  any- 
thing was  concluded;  and  afterwards  publish  it  in  the  end 
of  a  meeting,  or  in  a  market,  as  they  were  moved  thereto. 
And  when  all  things  were  found  clear,  being  free  from  all 
others,  and  their  relations  satisfied,  they  might  appoint  a 
meeting  on  purpose  for  the  taking  of  each  other;  in  the  pres- 
ence of  at  least  twelve  faithful  witnesses.'  Yet  these 
directions  not  being  observed,  and  truth  being  now  more 
spread  over  the  nation,  it  was  ordered  by  the  same  power 
and  Spirit  of  God,  'That  marriages  should  be  laid  before 
the  men's  monthly  and  quarterly  meetings,  or  as  the  meet- 
ings were  then  established;  that  friends  might  see,  that  the 
relations  of  those  who  proceeded  to  marriage  were  satisfied ; 
that  the  parties  were  clear  from  all  others;  and  that  widows 
had  made  provision  for  their  first  husband's  children,  before 
they  married  again;  and  what  else  was  needful  to  be  inquired 
into;  that  all  things  might  be  kept  clean  and  pure,  and  be 
done  in  righteousness  to  the  glory  of  God.  Afterwards  it 
was  ordered  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  'That  if  either  of  the 
parties  intending  to  marry  came  out  of  another  nation, 
county,  or  monthly  meeting,  they  should  bring  a  certificate 
from  the  monthly  meeting  before  which  they  came  to  lay 
their  intentions  of  marriage.'  " 
To  friends  in  Barbadoes  he  said: 

"Because  I  was  not  well  able  to  travel,  the  friends  of  the 


GEORGE  FOX 


59 


island  concluded  to  have  their  men's  and  women's  meeting 
for  the  service  of  the  church  at  Thomas  Rous's,  where  I  lay; 
by  which  means  I  was  present  at  each  of  their  meetings,  and 
had  very  good  service  for  the  Lord  in  both.  For  they  had 
need  of  information  in  many  things,  divers  disorders  being 
crept  in  for  want  of  care  and  watchfulness.  I  exhorted  them, 
more  especially  at  the  men's  meeting,  to  be  careful  with 
respect  to  marriages,  to  prevent  friends  marrying  in  near 
kindreds,  and  also  to  prevent  over-hasty  proceedings  towards 
second  marriages  after  the  death  of  a  former  husband  or 
wife;  advising  that  a  decent  regard  be  had  in  such  cases  to 
the  memory  of  the  deceased  husband  or  wife.  As  to  friends' 
children  marrying  too  young,  at  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
of  age,  I  showed  the  unfitness  thereof,  and  the  inconveniences 
and  hurts  that  attend  such  childish  marriages.  I  admonished 
them  to  purge  the  floor  thoroughly,  to  sweep  their  houses 
very  clean,  that  nothing  might  remain  that  would  defile ;  and 
that  all  should  take  care,  that  nothing  be  spoken  out  of  their 
meetings  to  the  blemishing  or  defaming  one  of  another.  Con- 
cerning registering  of  marriages,  births,  and  burials,  I  ad- 
vised them  to  keep  exact  records  of  each  in  distinct  books  for 
that  only  use;  and  also  to  record  in  a  book  for  that  purpose, 
the  condemnations  of  such  as  went  out  from  truth  into  dis- 
orderly practices,  and  the  repentance  and  restoration  of  such 
as  returned  again.  I  recommended  to  their  care  the  provid- 
ing of  convenient  burying-places  for  friends,  which  in  some 
parts  were  yet  wanting.  Some  directions  also  I  gave  them 
concerning  wills,  and  the  ordering  of  legacies  left  by  friends 
for  publick  uses,  and  other  things  relating  to  the  affairs  of  the 
church." 

The  care  which  Friends  took  to  supervise  the  marriages  of 


6o 


GEORGE  FOX 


the  young  is  well  illustrated  in  the  conversation  between 
George  Fox  and  Wilbert  Frouzen,  a  burgomaster  of 
Rotterdam : 

"Hearing  I  was  there  (he)  invited  me  to  his  country- 
house,  having  a  desire  to  speak  to  me  about  some  business 
relating  to  Aarent  Sunneman's  daughters.    I  took  George 
Watts  with  me,  and  a  brother  of  x\arent  Sunneman  had  us 
thither.   The  burgomaster  received  us  very  kindly,  was  glad 
to  see  me,  and  entering  into  discourse  about  his  kinsman's 
daughters,  I  found  that  he  was  apprehensive,  that,  their 
father  being  dead,  and  having  left  them  considerable  por- 
tions, they  might  be  stolen,  and  married  to  their  disad- 
vantage.  Wherefore,  I  told  him,  'It  was  our  principle  and 
practice,  that  none  should  marry  amongst  us,  unless  they  had 
a  certificate  of  the  consent  of  their  relations  or  guardians;  for 
it  was  our  Christian  care  to  watch  over  and  look  after  all 
young  people  that  came  among  us,  especially  those  whose  re- 
lations were  dead.    And  as  for  his  kinsman's  daughters,  we 
should  take  care  that  nothing  should  be  offered  to  them  but 
what  should  be  agreeable  to  truth  and  righteousness,  and 
that  they  might  be  preserved  in  the  fear  of  God,  according 
to  their  fathers'  mind.'   This  seemed  to  give  him  great  satis- 
faction.   While  I  was  with  him,  there  came  many  great 
people  to  me;  and  'I  exhorted  them  all  to  keep  in  the  fear 
of  God,  and  to  mind  His  good  Spirit  in  them,  to  keep  their 
minds  to  the  Lord.'    After  I  had  staid  two  or  three  hours, 
and  discoursed  with  them  of  several  things,  I  took  my  leave, 
and  he  very  kindly  sent  me  to  Rotterdam  in  his  chariot." 

It  has  been  said  that  George  Fox  was  totally  devoid  of 
humor.  Among  other  things  he  preached  against  the  vanity 
of  the  world  as  expressed  by  attire,  and  his  peculiar  sarcasm, 


GEORGE  FOX 


61 


not  without  humor,  is  well  shown  in  the  following,  which  he 
was  called  upon  to  pen  after  contemplation  of  some  of  the 
fashions  of  the  day : 

"What  a  world  is  this !  How  doth  the  Devil  garnish  him- 
self I  How  obedient  are  people  to  do  His  will  and  mind. 
They  are  altogether  carried  away  with  fooleries  and  vanities, 
both  men  and  women.  They  have  lost  the  hidden  man  of 
the  heart,  the  meek  and  quiet  spirit ;  which  with  the  Lord  is 
of  great  price.  They  ha\e  lost  the  adorning  of  Sarah;  they 
are  putting  on  gold  and  gay  apparel;  women  plaiting  the 
hair,  men  and  women  powdering  it ;  making  their  backs  look 
like  bags  of  meal.  They  look  so  strange,  that  they  can  scarce 
look  at  one  another;  they  are  so  lifted  up  in  pride.  Pride  has 
flown  up  into  their  heads;  and  hath  so  lifted  them  up,  that 
they  snuff  up,  like  wild  asses,  and  like  Ephraim  they  feed 
upon  wind,  and  are  got  to  be  like  wild  heifers,  who  feed 
upon  the  m.ountains.  Pride  hath  puffed  up  every  one  of 
them.  They  are  out  of  the  fear  of  God;  men  and  women. 
Young  and  old ;  one  puffs  up  another.  They  must  be  in  the 
fashion  of  the  world,  else  they  are  not  in  esteem;  nay  they 
shall  not  be  respected,  if  they  have  not  gold  or  silver  upon 
their  backs,  or  if  the  hair  be  not  powdered.  But  if  one  have 
store  of  ribands  hanging  about  his  waist,  at  his  knees,  and  in 
his  hat,  of  divers  colours,  red,  white,  black,  or  yel- 
low, and  his  hair  powdered;  then  he  is  a  brave 
man,  then  he  is  accepted,  then  he  is  no  Quaker. 
He  hath  ribands  on  his  back,  belly,  and  knees,  and 
his  hair  powdered.  This  is  the  array  of  the  world. 
But  is  not  this  from  the  lust  of  the  eye,  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  or  the  pride  of  life^  Likewise  the  women  having  their 
gold,  their  patches  on  their  faces,  noses,  cheeks,  foreheads. 


62 


GEORGE  FOX 


their  rings  on  their  fingers,  wearing  gold,  their  cuffs  double 
under  and  above,  like  a  butcher  with  his  white  sleeves;  their 
ribands  tied  about  their  hands,  and  three  or  four  gold  laces 
about  their  cloaths  ;  this  is  no  Quaker,  say  they.  This  attire 
pleaseth  the  world ;  and  if  they  cannot  get  these  things,  they 
are  discontented.  But  this  is  not  the  attire  of  Sarah,  whose 
adorning  was  in  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  of  a  quiet  and 
meek  spirit.  This  is  the  adorning  of  the  heathen;  not  of  the 
apostle,  nor  of  the  saints,  whose  adorning  was,  not  wearing 
of  gold,  nor  plaiting  of  hair,  but  that  of  a  meek  and  quiet 
spirit,  which  is  of  great  price  with  the  Lord.  Here  was  the 
sobriety  and  good  ornament  which  was  accepted  of  the  Lord. 
This  was  Paul's  exhortation  and  preaching.  But  we  see, 
the  talkers  of  Paul's  words,  live  out  of  Paul's  command,  and 
out  of  the  example  of  Sarah,  and  are  found  in  the  steps  of 
the  great  heathen,  who  comes  to  examine  the  apostle  in  his 
gorgeous  apparel.  Are  not  these,  that  have  got  ribands  hang- 
ing about  their  arms,  hands,  back,  waists,  knees,  hats,  like 
fiddler's  boys'?  This  shews,  that  they  are  got  into  the  basest 
and  most  contemptible  life,  who  are  in  the  fashion  of  fid- 
dler's boys  and  stage-players,  quite  out  of  the  paths  and  steps 
of  solid  men;  in  the  very  steps  and  paths  of  the  wild 
heads,  who  give  themselves  up  to  every  invention  and  vanity 
of  the  world  that  appears,  and  are  inventing  how  to  get  it 
upon  their  backs,  heads,  feet,  and  legs ;  and  say.  If  it  be  out 
of  the  fashion,  it  is  nothing  worth.  Are  not  these  spoilers  of 
the  creation,  who  have  the  fat  and  the  best  of  it,  and  waste 
and  destroy  it?  Do  not  these  incumber  God's  earth"?  Let 
that  of  God  in  all  consciences  answer,  and  who  are  in  the 
wisdom,  judge.  And  further,  if  one  get  a  pair  of  breeches 
like  a  coat,  and  hang  them  about  with  points,  and  up  almost 


GEORGE  FOX 


63 


to  the  middle,  a  pair  of  double  cuffs  about  his  hands,  and  a 
feather  in  his  cap,  here's  a  gentleman;  bow  before  him,  put 
off  your  hats,  get  a  company  of  fiddlers,  a  set  of  musick,  and 
women  to  dance.  This  is  a  brave  fellow.  Up  in  the  chamber ; 
up  in  the  chamber  without,  and  up  in  the  chamber  within. 
Are  these  your  fine  Christians?  Yea,  say  they.  They  are 
Christians ;  but  say  the  serious  people,  They  are  out  of  Christ's 
life,  out  of  the  apostles'  command,  and  out  of  the  saints' 
ornament.  To  see  such  as  are  in  the  fashions  of  the  world 
before-mentioned,  a  company  of  them  playing  at  bowls,  or 
at  tables,  or  at  shovel-board,  or  each  taking  his  horse,  with 
bunches  of  ribands  on  his  head,  as  the  rider  hath  on  his  own, 
perhaps  a  ring  in  his  ear  too,  and  so  go  to  horse-racing  to 
spoil  the  creatures.  Oh  I  these  are  gentlemen  indeed,  these 
are  bred  up  gentlemen,  these  are  brave  fellows,  they  must 
take  their  recreation ;  for  pleasures  are  lawful.  These  in  their 
sports,  set  up  their  shouts  like  wild  asses.  They  are  like  the 
kine  or  beasts,  when  they  are  put  to  grass,  lowing  when  they 
are  full.  Here  is  the  glorying  of  those  before-mentioned ;  but 
it  is  in  the  flesh,  not  in  the  Lord.  These  are  bad  Christians, 
and  shew  that  they  are  gluttoned  with  the  creatures,  and  then 
the  flesh  rejoiceth.  Here  is  evil  breeding  of  youth  and  young 
women,  who  are  carried  away  with  the  vanities  of  the  mind 
in  their  own  inventions,  pride,  arrogance,  lust,  gluttony,  un- 
cleanness.  They  eat  and  drink,  and  rise  up  to  play.  This 
is  the  generation  which  God  is  not  well  pleased  with;  for 
their  eyes  are  full  of  adultery,  who  cannot  cease  from  evil. 
These  be  they  that  live  in  pleasures  upon  earth ;  these  be  they 
who  are  dead  while  they  live ;  who  glory  not  in  the  Lord,  but 
in  the  flesh;  these  be  they  that  are  out  of  the  life  that  the 
scriptures  were  given  forth  from,  who  live  in  the  fashions 


64 


GEORGE  FOX 


and  vanities  of  the  world,  out  of  truth's  adorning,  in  the 
devil's  adorning  (who  is  out  of  the  truth),  not  in  the  adorn- 
ing of  the  Lord,  which  is  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,  and  is  with 
the  Lord  of  great  price.  But  this  ornament  and  this  adorn- 
ing is  not  put  on  by  them  that  adorn  themselves,  and  have 
the  ornament  of  Him  that  is  out  of  the  truth.  That  is  not 
accepted  with  the  Lord  which  is  accepted  in  their  eye." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 

It  is  said  of  Sidney  Smith  that,  when  asked  by  a  friend, 
who  was  an  artist,  to  criticise  a  portrait  of  a  distinguished 
non-conformist,  churchman  of  England,  he  replied:  "It  is  ex- 
cellent, but  do  you  not  think  you  could  throw  into  the  face  a 
stronger  expression  of  aversion  to  the  established  church?" 
This  witticism  might  have  been  reversed  and  applied  to 
Justice  Gervase  Bennett,  who  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
order  committing  George  Fox  to  the  House  of  Correction. 
Few  enemies  of  the  Quakers  displayed  more  aversion  or  hos- 
tility in  act  or  expression  than  did  Bennett,  who  like  various 
distinguished  personalities  in  history,  gained  his  right  to 
fame  by  one  act;  in  this  case  the  invention  of  the  word 
Quaker.  He  applied  it  to  Fox  in  court  as  an  offensive 
epithet.  George  Fox  had  written  him  several  letters  in  which 
he  had  been  called  upon  "to  tremble  at  the  word  of  the 
Lord,"  whereupon  the  Justice  applied  the  term  Quaker  to 
him.  This  term  has  endured  until  to-day  and  it  is  so 
thoroughly  identified  v/ith  the  people  that  it  is  generally 
used  by  laymen.  Curiously  enough,  it  has  become  a  title  of 
honor,  the  word  carrying  the  suggestion  of  a  God-serving 
people  of  the  highest  type  of  citizenship.  For  years  Quakers 
were,  and  even  to-day  are,  confounded  by  some  with  Shakers, 
and  are  supposed  by  the  ignorant  to  quake  or  tremble  or  per- 
form some  absurd  manoeuvres  at  their  meetings,  when  the 
facts  are,  that  of  all  religious  sects  they  are  the  most  digni- 
fied in  their  worship. 

The  Scots  now  proclaimed  Charles  II.  king.  He  was  living 

5 


66  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


in  Holland,  and  a  commission  was  sent  asking  him  to  sub- 
scribe to  the  covenant,  to  abrogate  the  Episcopacy  in  Scot- 
land, and  sever  the  connection  with  some  lords,  who,  while 
attached  to  him,  were  not  acceptable  to  the  party.  The  King 
did  not  respond  to  the  invitation  of  the  commission  until 
later  when  he  sailed  for  Edinburgh,  where,  upon  his  ar- 
rival, he  did  everything  possible  to  appeal  to  the  English  as 
well  as  the  Scotch.   In  his  pronunciamento  he  said: 

"Though  his  Majesty,  as  a  dutiful  son,  be  obliged  to  hon- 
our the  memory  of  his  royal  father,  and  have  in  estimation 
the  person  of  his  mother,  yet  doth  he  desire  to  be  deeply 
humbled  and  afflicted  in  spirit  before  God,  because  of  his 
father's  barkening  to  evil  councils,  and  his  opposition  to  the 
work  of  Reformation,  and  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant, by  which  so  much  of  the  blood  of  the  Lord's  people 
hath  been  shed  in  these  kingdoms,  and  for  the  idolatry  of 
his  mother." 

This  was  an  appeal  to  the  extreme  Independents,  the  fol- 
lowers of  George  Fox  and  others,  and  was  suggested  by  some 
clever  adviser  to  deplete  the  followers  of  Cromwell,  who 
were  fighting  in  Ireland.  Parliament  now  directed  General 
Fairfax  to  proceed  against  the  Scotch,  but  he  refused  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  willing  to  defend  England  but  not  to 
attack  Scotland.  In  this  sentiment  he  doubtless  was  joined 
by  Royalists,  the  extreme  Levellers,  Episcopalians  and  Pres- 
byterians in  opposition  to  the  Independents  who  represented 
the  English  Commonwealth.  The  position  of  the  Quakers 
was  one  unalterably  opposed  to  war.  Arbitration  appealed 
to  them  and  they  referred  to  the  Bible  in  justification  of  their 
non-combative  policy. 

George  Fox  was  in  jail  carrying  on  an  active  propaganda 


MILTOX  AM)  KIJAVOOD 
From  the  Horslci/  Pa'nit\ii<i 


OLIVER  (liOMWhUJj 
•'rohi  the  WdJIvCr  l*aiiiliii(/ 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  67 


by  writing  sermons  and  letters,  arousing  so  much  feeling  that 
the  authorities  were  greatly  embarrassed.  They  regretted 
heartily  that  they  had  arrested  him.  At  this  time  his  family 
offered  to  pay  any  fine  or  give  bond  for  his  release,  but  he 
refused  to  leave  the  jail  without  legal  procedure,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  guilty.  On  hearing  this  from  Fox, 
the  Justice  who  had  committed  him,  rushed  at  him  and 
knocked  him  down,  maddened  at  his  perseverance.  They 
then  endeavored  to  get  rid  of  him  by  trying  to  induce  him  to 
enter  the  army,  offering  him  a  release  and  a  captain's  com- 
mission if  he  would  enter  the  service  of  the  Commonwealth 
against  Charles  Stuart.  But  he  refused,  basing  his  refusal 
upon  Biblical  grounds  and  denouncing  war  with  renewed 
fervor. 

All  this  time  George  Fox  kept  up  a  fusillade  of  letters  ad- 
dressed to  those  in  authority.  Divested  of  the  peculiar  and 
verbose  method  of  writing,  then  in  vogue,  they  displayed  a 
keen  appreciation  of  the  need  of  reform  in  and  out  of  jails 
and  in  every  department  of  life.  If  one  did  not  know  the 
period,  he  could  easily  imagine  the  letters  to  have  been 
written  by  some  earnest  philanthropist  of  the  twentieth 
century.  The  situatioix  had  a  humorous  side.  Fox  by  his 
protests,  his  letters,  his  conversion  of  the  jailer  and  his 
family,  proved  to  be  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  authorities, 
who  had  the  temerity  to  confine  him.  He  would  not  accept 
money  or  a  commission.  He  refused  the  aid  of  his  relatives 
who  brought  bail,  and  at  last  when  the  jailers  ingenuously 
told  him  to  "walk  a  mile  for  exercise,"  hoping  he  would  make 
his  escape,  he  refused. 

Never  had  so  strange  or  so  peculiar  a  personage  been  seen 
in  England.   He  was  mad,  or  a  fool,  or  both,  contended  the 


68  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


critics.  But  Fox  replied,  "I  was  arrested  without  cause.  I 
must  be  placed  at  liberty  legally  and  the  situation  adjusted 
with  absolute  justice."  They  placed  him  in  a  filthy  cell 
without  a  bed,  and  forced  martyrdom  upon  him  in  answer  to 
his  plea. 

While  George  Fox  was  languishing  in  jail  in  Derby  in  a 
cell  unfit  for  a  dog,  Oliver  Cromwell  had  been  recalled  from 
Ireland  and  made  Commander-in-Chief.  He  at  once  pro- 
ceeded against  the  Scotch  with  an  army  of  veterans  number^ 
ing  eleven  thousand.  Colonel  Monk,  who  later  had  many 
dealings  with  the  Quakers,  was  a  trusted  officer  of  Cromwell. 
One  morning  the  latter  shouted,  "that  God  arise  and  scatter 
his  enemies."  With  their  war  cry  "The  Lord  of  Hosts"  ring- 
ing on  the  air,  the  Puritans  charged.  In  the  midst  of  the 
battle,  to  illustrate  their  devout  character,  Cromwell's  men 
sang  the  one  hundred  and  seventeenth  psalm ;  a  weird  battle, 
both  sides  calling  on  the  Lord  and  claiming  to  fight  for  Him, 
while  George  Fox  was  fighting  the  methods  of  both  with  his 
pen  from  Derby  jail. 

Cromwell  routed  the  Scotch,  slew  three  thousand  men,  and 
captured  several  thousand.  The  Scotch  were  not  dis- 
couraged. King  Charles  entered  England  at  the  head  of 
fifteen  thousand  men,  but  Cromwell  followed  with  thirty 
thousand,  and  routed  him  at  Worcester,  the  last  battle  of  the 
Civil  War. 

The  Commonwealth  was  now  the  supreme  power  in  Great 
Britain,  and  among  various  new  acts  came  the  release  of 
George  Fox,  who  again  immediately  started  upon  his  travels, 
joining  a  friend  and  convert,  William  Dewsbury.  Fox  de- 
voted a  part  of  his  time  to  visiting  churches,  after  the  service 
rising  and  addressing  the  congregation.    The  Quakers  were 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  69 

often  attacked  for  this  alleged  interference,  and  later  his- 
torians have  accused  them  of  grossly  intruding  upon  the 
congregations  of  other  clergymen  and  enforcing  their  views 
upon  them.  The  facts  are,  that  there  was  an  abundant 
precedent  for  this  action,  though  whether  it  was  the  cour- 
teous thing  to  do  is  another  question.  I  have  seen  aliens 
rise  in  a  Friends'  meeting  in  the  nineteenth  century,  to  be 
firmly  and  quietly  led  out  if  they  were  at  all  extravagant 
or  ventured  upon  an  attack  against  the  doctrines  of  the 
Friends.  The  latter  prefer  to  do  their  own  purging  with 
their  system  of  elimination,  which  has  always  been  effective. 
Addressing  other  congregations  was  more  or  less  the  rule 
in  these  ultra-religious  days,  and  custom  sanctioned  it, 
though  many  English  clergymen  or  "priests"  objected  to 
visits  of  Quakers  and  urged  their  congregations  to  resent  it. 
Many  of  the  severest  attacks  made  upon  Fox  and  other 
Quakers  in  England  and  America  were  for  this  interference. 
In  some  places  his  presence  was  warmly  greeted  and  the 
message  of  interest  to  the  congregation;  but  at  York  Cath- 
edral he  was  thrown  out  and  injured.  This  was  repeated 
at  Duncaster;  where  he  was  hit  with  stones.  At  Tickhill 
a  clerk  struck  him  a  violent  blow  with  a  Bible,  and  he  was 
thrown  out  of  the  ''steeplehouse"  and  dragged  down  the 
street;  yet  he  rose  and  only  reproved  the  mob,  ''for  dis- 
honouring Christianity." 

If  the  actions  of  George  Fox  are  carefully  studied  during 
these  eventful  and  strenuous  years,  it  will  be  seen  that  he 
had  been  a  close  student  of  the  New  Testament.  He  often 
consoled  himself  with  saying  that  one  greater  than  he  had 
been  ill  treated  for  insisting  upon  telling  the  truth ;  and  it  is 
beyond  question  that  he  had  Christ  continually  in  his  mind, 


70  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


and  when  attacked  refused  to  retaliate.  In  a  word,  he 
followed  the  Master  in  this,  as  in  everything  else. 

Fox  invariably  refused  to  appear  against  his  enemies  in 
court,  and  for  this  he  was  accounted  a  fool.  There  were 
now  several  hundred  Quakers  in  England.  Thomas  Alden, 
Richard  Farnsworth,  and  William  Dewsbury  were  preach- 
ing. At  Seaburgh  George  Fox  met  Francis  Howgill,  a 
preacher,  and  at  Firbank  Chapel  John  Audland,  both  of 
whom  became  converts  and  most  influential  in  the  cause. 
At  Under  Barrow  he  met  Edward  Burrough,  a  man  of  fine 
family,  who  also  became  a  Friend  and  an  eminent  man  in 
the  Society,  a  leader  in  every  sense. 

The  fame  of  George  Fox  had  now  extended  well  over 
England  and  Wales,  and  wherever  he  stopped  to  preach 
many  were  struck  with  the  force  of  his  arguments  and  the 
correctness  of  his  premise.  Here  and  there  among  the 
converts  were  some  who  could  speak,  and  so  aided  in  repeat- 
ing the  warnings  of  Fox  and  calling  attention  to  the  need 
of  reforms  everywhere.  During  the  tour  of  English  towns 
in  1652,  George  Fox  came  one  day  to  Swarthmore,  the 
home  of  Judge  Fell,  who  held  court  in  Wales.  Here  he 
met  a  priest  named  William  Lampit  with  whom  he  became 
involved  in  an  interesting  discussion  on  mooted  religious 
points.  Margaret  Fell,  the  wife  of  the  Judge,  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  asked  Fox  to  go  to  church  and  listen  to  Lampit; 
but  Fox  declined,  telling  her  that  he  would  stroll  in  the 
fields  until  she  returned.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the 
Quaker  felt  a  "call"  to  go  in,  which  he  obeyed,  and  as  the 
priest  closed  the  service.  Fox  rose  and  addressed  the  con- 
gregation in  his  usual  fashion. 

Some  of  his  remarks  gave  serious  offense,  and  despite  the 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  7 1 


protest  of  Margaret  Fell,  a  constable  led  him  out  of  the 
church  and  he  was  forced  to  continue  his  arguments,  to  those 
who  desired  to  hear  him,  in  the  graveyard.  In  the  evening 
he  returned  to  Swarthmore  and  spoke  so  convincingly  that 
the  servants  of  the  Fell  homestead,  to  whom  he  preached, 
became  converted,  and  Margaret  Fell  herself  was  much  dis- 
turbed, and  more  than  half  convinced  that  he  was  right. 

Fox  travelled  on,  and  the  gossip,  who  lived  in  1652  as 
well  as  in  1912,  hastened  to  inform  Judge  Fell  that  the 
members  of  his  household  had  been  the  victims  of  witch- 
craft at  the  hands  of  one  Fox.  Margaret  Fell,  desiring  that 
her  husband  should  meet  the  young  Quaker,  invited  him 
to  return,  also  Richard  Farnsworth  and  one  Naylor.  Judge 
Fell  had  heard  that  the  religious  peace  of  his  family  had 
been  broken  up,  and  had  returned,  on  the  defensive  and 
much  worried,  though  his  house  had  always  been  a  favorite 
meeting  place  for  priests  to  gather  and  freely  discuss  all 
questions. 

Swarthmore  was  a  literary  center,  and  Swarthmore  Hall 
was  famed  far  and  near  for  its  hospitality  and  the  culture 
of  its  owners.  Margaret  Fell  was  born  in  1614,  and  living 
during  the  reigns  of  James  the  First,  Charles  the  First,  the 
time  of  Cromwell,  and  Charles  and  James  the  Second,  Wil- 
liam the  Third  and  Mary,  saw  all  of  the  persecutions  of  the 
Quakers.  She  was  identified  with  three  houses  in  England 
all  of  which  are  still  standing  in  Lancashire;  Marsh  Grange 
at  Kirby  Ireleth,  where  she  lived  as  a  child,  Kirby  Hall,  the 
home  of  Colonel  Kirby,  her  prosecutor,  and  Swarthmore 
Hall,  the  home  of  her  husband.  Judge  Fell,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster 
and  Judge  of  Cheshire  and  the  North  Wales  Circuit.  Mar- 


72  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


garet  Fell  went  to  Swarthmore  to  live  when  but  seventeen 
years  of  age,  and  her  charming  personality,  high  culture, 
and  the  erudition  of  her  distinguished  husband  in  a  short 
time  made  Swarthmore  Hall  well  known.  Here  came 
Quakers  of  all  kinds,  from  the  "convinced"  soldiers  of 
Cromwell's  army  to  William  Penn  and  Isaac  Pennington, 
the  Quaker  son  of  a  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  Thomas 
Lawson,  the  distinguished  botanist.  Colonel  West,  Colonel 
Gervase  Benson,  Edward  Burrough,  Francis  Howgill, 
Thomas  Aldam  and  others  who  held  meetings  here  and 
made  the  Fell  home  in  a  sense  headquarters  of  the  early 
Friends.  Here  also  one  met  Henry  Coward  of  Lancaster, 
James  Lancaster  of  Walney  who  stood  between  George 
Fox  and  a  Walney  mob.  Relations  and  friends  of  the 
family  were  Henry  and  Leonard  Fell  of  Baycliff,  near  Ul- 
verston;  ministers,  Thomas  Salthouse,  Mary  Asken,  Annie 
Clayton,  William  Caton  and  Christopher  Holder,  a  brother 
of  Anthony  of  W^interbourne,  first  imprisoned  in  1665,  and 
many  more.  The  Fells,  Barclays,  Penns,  and  Penning- 
tons  were  particularly  intimate  and  congenial,  and  were 
types  of  the  most  cultivated  members  of  the  Society,  which 
included  all  classes.  In  these  hospitable  halls  might  have 
been  seen  Ellis  Hooks,  who  was  the  Recording  Clerk  for 
twenty  years. 

After  dinner,  on  his  second  visit  at  the  Fell  house,  George 
Fox  joined  the  family,  and  in  the  course  of  the  evening 
he  presented  the  case  of  the  Friends  so  vigorously  to  Judge 
Fell,  and  in  so  convincing  a  manner,  that  the  latter  became 
much  interested  and  asked  him  to  call  a  meeting  at  Swarth- 
more Hall,  which  George  Fox  did,  and  which  was  con- 
tinued until  1690  when  a  regular  meeting-house  was  built. 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  73 

This  meeting  with  the  Fells  at  Swarthmore  had  no  little 
bearing  and  influence  on  the  future  career  of  George  Fox, 
as  he  met  at  their  home  many  famous  and  influential  men 
who  were  convinced  by  his  arguments  and  logic  and  his 
remarkable  familiarity  with  the  Bible.  It  is  necessary  to 
bear  in  mind  the  political  situation  at  the  time,  when  the 
entire  country  was  broken  up  and  divided  into  numerous 
religious  and  political  factions.  The  message  of  Fox  only 
added  to  the  flame.  He  preached  of  the  evils  of  the  day, 
attacked  the  most  ancient  and  time-honored  customs  and 
exposed  their  absurdity.  No  shams  were  sacred  to  him,  and 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  especially  were  without  doubt 
often  honestly  alarmed  at  his  temerity.  He  incensed  the 
clerg}'  by  accusing  them  of  making  a  business  of  religion  and 
accepting  money  for  preaching. 

Fox  denounced  the  magistrate  and  asked,  "Is  not  truth 
silenced  in  the  streets?"  He  admonished  them  to  observe 
mercy  and  charity.  He  called  upon  Colonel  Barton,  who 
was  an  aristocrat,  and  reproved  him  for  his  pride  and  world- 
liness.  He  called  upon  Justice  Bennett  to  show  mercy  as 
he  expected  it,  to  visit  the  prisons ;  look  into  the  state  of  the 
prisoners  and  aid  the  oppressed  in  general.  To  the  Mayor 
of  Derby  he  read  a  lecture  on  temperance,  reproached  him 
for  allowing  a  man  to  be  imprisoned  for  worshipping  God 
in  his  own  way.  To  the  Court  of  Derby  he  wrote  calling 
attention  to  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  the  taking  of  oaths, 
which  was  forbidden  in  the  Bible.  He  wrote  the  authorities 
protesting  against  the  putting  of  men  to  death  for  small 
offences,  as  was  the  custom,  and  for  keeping  men  and  women 
in  jail  for  long  periods  for  the  same. 

At  times  Fox  was  unquestionably  under  intense  religious 


74  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


excitement  and  did  things  which  can  only  be  accounted  for 
on  the  ground  that  he  considered  every  good  impulse  which 
entered  his  mind,  the  voice  of  God.  Such  an  instance  was 
the  removing  of  his  shoes  at  Litchfield,  and  his  passage 
through  the  city  crying,  "Woe  I  to  the  bloody  city  of  Litch- 
field," and  wondering  why  the  Lord  had  called  upon  him 
to  do  this  thing  which  seemed,  possibly,  like  a  penance.  Yet 
we  see  him  satisfied  when  some  one  told  him  that  during  the 
time  of  Diocletian  a  thousand  Christians  were  martyred  in 
Litchfield.  In  July,  1656,  George  Fox  was  in  London  aiding 
in  promoting  the  first  expedition  of  Friends  to  America  in 
the  "Speedwell,"  a  vessel  of  about  sixty  tons,  and  in  Novem- 
ber of  this  year  we  find  him  again  in  London,  the  members 
of  the  Speedwell  expedition  having  been  banished  from 
America  and  again  on  English  soil. 

With  Gerard  Rogers,  Christopher  Holder  and  others, 
George  Fox  now  organized  the  famous  Woodhouse  expedi- 
tion. Those  proposing  to  sail  were  William  Brend,  Chris- 
topher Holder,  but  recently  banished  from  Massachusetts, 
John  Copeland,  Sarah  Gibbons,  Mary  Weatherhead, 
Dorothy  Waugh,  Robert  Hodgson,  Humphrey  Norton, 
Richard  Doudney,  William  Robinson  and  Mary  Clarke. 
The  "Woodhouse"  was  visited  off  the  Downes  in  1657  by 
William  Dewsbury,  who  doubtless  saw  her  start  on  the 
voyage  which  was  just  six  weeks  longer  than  that  of  any  of 
the  large  modern  steamers  over  about  the  same  course 
in  1913. 

It  is  practically  impossible  for  anyone,  especially  a  re- 
ligious extremist  and  ultra-enthusiast,  believing  himself  to 
have  a  divine  mission,  as  did  George  Fox,  to  avoid  at  times 
going  to  extremes,  or  what  might  be  termed  passing  the 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


75 


bounds  of  good  taste  and  reason,  and  but  few  such  enthus- 
iasts have  escaped  censure.  They  have  at  some  time  become 
irrational.  A  number  of  instances  can  be  mentioned  among 
early  Friends,  some  of  whom  poured  ashes  on  their  heads 
and  paraded  the  streets  garbed  in  sackcloth  or  stripped  off 
some  of  their  attire,  as  a  "sign.''  Such  persons,  doubtless, 
were  afflicted  with  religious  dementia^  for  the  time,  and 
were  carried  away  by  the  enthusiasm  of  their  calling.  We 
observe  this  to-day  especially  in  revivals.  I  have  seen  per- 
sons carried  out  of  a  negro  Methodist  meeting  in  a  cataleptic 
fit.  Scenes  in  camp  meeting  revivals  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury were  never  equalled  in  the  sevententh  for  fantastic 
coloring. 

Instances  of  this  kind  were  rare  among  the  early  Friends 
and  where  any  extravagances  did  occur  as  a  "sign,"  to 
attract  attention  violently  to  the  point  at  issue,  much  was 
made  of  it  by  the  enemies  of  Fox  and  his  followers.  It 
would  have  been  marvelous  had  not  some  w^ak  minds  given 
way  at  such  a  time.  We  find  them  among  the  Baptists, 
the  Presbyterians  and  quite  as  many  to-day  among  various 
denominations,  but  no  one  would  think  of  holding  up  such 
isolated  examples  agamst  the  different  religious  bodies  as  an 
instance  of  the  failure  of  the  entire  sect.  In  all  religious 
communities  there  are  extremists  who  go  beyond  the  bounds 
of  reason  and  bring  down  odium  upon  their  cause. 

Some  Friends,  like  the  irrational  Naylor,  not  strong  of 
mind,  would  read  of  the  performances  of  the  Hebrew  proph- 
ets, how  God  commanded  Isaiah  to  walk  naked  and  bare- 
footed for  three  years  as  a  "sign,"  or  how  Ezekiel  was  set  up 
as  a  "sign"  unto  the  House  of  Israel,  would  be  very  likely  to 
consider  it  their  duty  to  go  and  do  likewise,  and  instead  of 


76  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


putting  such  unfortunates  under  gentle  restraint,  as  they  do 
in  1913,  they  were  in  1647  taken  seriously  and  arrested  as 
criminals.  Even  Robert  Barclay,  one  of  the  most  intelligent 
of  Quakers,  felt  called  upon  in  1677,  "to  pass  through  three 
principal  streets  of  Aberdeen  clothed  in  sackcloth."  The 
object  of  this  was  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  public  to 
their  sins.  He  says,  "The  command  of  the  Lord  concerning 
this  thing  came  unto  me  that  very  morning  when  I  awakened, 
and  the  burden  thereof  was  very  great;  yea,  seemed  almost 
insupportable  unto  me  (for  such  a  thing  until  that  very 
moment,  had  never  entered  me  before,  not  in  the  most 
remote  consideration.)  And  some,  whom  I  called  to  declare 
to  them  this  thing,  can  bear  witness  how  great  was  the  agony 
of  my  spirit,  how  I  besought  the  Lord  with  tears,  that  this 
cup  might  pass  away  from  me  I  And  this  was  the  end,  to 
call  you  to  repentance  by  this  signal  and  singular  step,  which 
I,  as  to  my  own  will  and  inclination,  was  as  unwilling  to  be 
found  in,  as  the  worst  and  wickedest  of  you  can  be  averse 
from  receiving  or  laying  it  to  heart." 

Other  "signs"  were  the  tearing  of  his  cap  before  Cromwell 
by  Alden,  the  breaking  of  jugs  or  bottles  before  Parliament, 
the  appearance  of  Robert  Huntington  in  the  Carlisle  Church, 
garbed  in  a  white  sheet  with  a  halter  about  his  neck,  the 
scattering  of  money  in  the  streets  of  London  by  Thomas 
Ibbits,  or  the  parade  of  Solomon  Eccles  with  a  pan  of  burn- 
ing coals  and  brimstone  on  his  head  as  a  sign  "to  such  as 
would  not  see,  and  such  as  would  not  hear  the  truth."  One 
William  Simpson  imitated  Isaiah  by  walking  naked  three 
years,  as  a  sign  to  Cromwell  that  God  would  strip  them  of 
their  power,  etc.  This  unfortunate  was  doubtless  a  public 
nuisance,  of  impaired  mentality,  and  instead  of  being  whip- 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  77 

ped  repeatedly  by  officers  of  the  law,  should  have  been 
placed  under  restraint.  These  and  others  took  the  words 
of  Isaiah  literally,  but  they  and  other  extremists  of  like 
ilk  were  but  few  in  number  compared  to  the  entire  body  of 
Friends  in  England,  and  investigation  will  show  that  many 
similar  eccentricities  have  been  chronicled  among  extremists 
in  various  countries  and  religions.  Samuel  M.  Janny 
evidently  takes  these  isolated  and  inconsequential  vagaries 
much  to  heart  and  apologizes  for  them.   He  says : 

"It  would  be  extremely  unjust  to  apply  to  all  the  actions 
of  former  generations  the  standard  of  propriety  now  adopted 
in  enlightened  nations ;  for,  although  the  cardinal  principles 
of  morality  have  been  nearly  the  same  among  good  people 
in  all  ages,  there  has  been  a  vast  difference  in  their  manners 
and  their  ideas  of  decorum.  The  few  instances  of  inde- 
corum among  the  early  Friends  may  well  be  pardoned, 
when  we  reflect  that  they  lived  in  an  age  when,  by  order  of 
public  authorities  and  for  no  other  offense  than  religious 
dissent,  worthy  men  and  virtuous  women  were  stripped  to 
the  waist,  and  cruelly  scourged  in  the  public  streets,  both 
in  England  and  America." 

It  is  altogether  unnecessary  to  take  such  exhibitions  seri- 
ously; they  were  too  few,  and  had  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  the  main  work  of  the  Quakers.  In  all  lands,  yesterday 
and  to-day,  men  and  women  have  attained  all  stages  of  in- 
sanity in  the  cause  of  religion,  from  the  harikari  of  the  Jap- 
annese,  running  amuck  of  the  East  Indian,  pseudo  crucifixion 
of  certain  American  Indians,  and  the  sending  of  children  to 
Heaven  by  feeding  them  to  the  crocodiles  of  India,  the 
sharks  of  Africa  and  a  thousand  other  eccentricities  in  the 
last  thousand  years.    It  is  well  to  turn  the  page  on  the 


78  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


crimes  and  manias  which  have  held  under  the  guise  of  relig- 
ion. They  are  but  the  parasite  on  the  branch,  have  no  rela- 
tion to  the  final  results  of  great  religious  endeavor  of  the 
ages.  Even  to-day  a  certain  percentage  of  the  inmates  of  all 
insane  asylums  are  suffering  from  religious  mania,  caused  by 
over  excitement.  I  have  dwelt  upon  this  inconsequential 
feature  because  it  is  so  often  unjustly  taken  up  by  critical 
writers,  being  merely  an  incident  in  the  evolution  of  a  great 
moral  idea  and  in  no  sense  a  custom. 

George  Fox  had  a  striking  personality  and  remarkable 
power  of  holding  his  audiences,  possessing  what  is  known 
to-day  as  personal  magnetism  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 
A  woman  of  Beverly  told  Justice  Hotham  that  "the  last 
Sabbath  Day  an  angel  or  spirit  came  into  the  Church  at 
Beverly  and  spoke  the  wonderful  things  of  God,  to  the 
astonishment  of  all  that  were  there.  It  astonished  all, 
priests,  professors  and  magistrate."  This  is  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  extreme  effect  produced  by  Fox  on  some 
of  his  hearers,  who  were  influenced  by  the  religious  fervor 
of  the  time.  George  Fox  was  the  angel,  and  Justice  Hotham 
later  became  an  earnest  convert  to  Quakerism.  In  one  of 
his  tours  beyond  the  town  of  Pickering  we  have  possibly 
one  of  the  first  illustrations  of  the  silent  meeting.  It  is 
referred  to  in  his  Journal.    He  says:, 

"I  passed  to  another  town  where  there  was  another  great 
meeting,  the  old  priest  being  with  me;  and  there  came  pro- 
fessors of  several  sorts  to  it.  I  sate  on  a  hay-stack,  and 
spoke  nothing  for  some  hours;  for  I  was  to  famish  them 
from  words.  The  professors  would  ever  and  anon  be  speak- 
ing to  the  old  priest  and  asking  him  when  I  would  begin, 
and  when  I  would  speak*?    He  bade  them  wait;  and  told 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  79 


them,  that  the  people  waited  upon  Christ  a  long  while 
before  he  spoke.  At  last  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  speak ; 
and  they  were  struck  by  the  Lord's  power.  The  word  of 
life  reached  to  them,  and  there  was  a  general  convince- 
ment  amongst  them." 

The  payment  of  tithes,  taxes  to  support  the  established 
church  to  the  priests,  was  the  cause  of  much  trouble.  George 
Fox  taught  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  pay  tithes  to  sup- 
port a  priest  or  a  church,  in  which  the  taxed  had  no  interest, 
confidence  or  faith.  He  preached  against  it  and  the  Friends 
obeyed  his  injunction.  The  refusal  caused  many  to  be 
thrown  into  jail  in  England  and  in  America.  In  the  Journal 
he  quotes  an  instance  where  a  priest  was  converted  and 
refused  to  take  tithes.  He  says :  "From  hence  I  passed  on, 
the  old  priest  being  still  with  me,  and  several  others.  As 
we  went  along  some  people  called  to  him  and  said,  'Mr. 
Boyes,  we  owe  you  some  money  for  tithes,  pray  come  and 
take  it.'  But  he  threw  up  his  hands  and  said,  he  had  enough, 
he  would  have  none  of  it;  they  might  keep  it."  And,  "He 
praised  the  Lord  he  had  enough." 

At  this  time  Fox  was  continually  traveling,  moving  from 
place  to  place;  now  in  the  snow,  now  sleeping  in  the  "furz" 
or  in  stacks  of  corn,  or  walking  soaked  in  the  rain,  and 
with  houses  of  refuge  closed  against  him,  to  be  as  suddenly 
taken  in  and  made  much  of  by  zealous  followers.  Often 
absurd  charges  would  be  trumped  up  against  him  so  that 
the  authorities  could  lock  him  up.  Here  he  would  be  charged 
as  claiming  to  be  Christ;  or  there,  breaking  the  laws  of  Par- 
liament, or  again  creating  a  riot;  all  in  all,  his  passage 
through  England  was  a  stormy  one.  At  Tickhill  he  was 
nearly  killed.    They  beat  him,  stoned  him,  dragged  him 


8o  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 

through  the  streets,  threw  him  over  a  hedge  and  rolled  him 
about  until  he  was  covered  with  blood  and  dirt ;  but  he  rose 
up  and  preached  to  them  and  forgave  them,  even  when  the 
matter  was  brought  into  the  courts,  refusing  to  appear,  as 
the  punishment  for  striking  a  man  in  a  church  was  to  strike 
off  the  offending  hand. 

His  experience  at  Ulverstone  was  even  more  menacing. 
Here  Justice  John  Sawrey  incited  the  people  to  attack  him, 
on  the  ground  that  he  misrepresented  the  Scriptures.  Fox 
being  a  non-resistant  did  nothing  to  protect  himself ;  so  they 
knocked  him  down,  kicked  him,  and  the  mob  trampled  on 
him  and  doubtless  did  its  best  to  kill  him.  They  dragged 
him  out  of  the  town,  beating  him  with  clubs  until  he  fell 
senseless  in  the  mud.  Recovering  in  a  few  moments  he 
began  to  speak  again,  when  a  man  struck  his  outstretched 
arm  so  foul  a  blow  that  it  became  helpless.  Fox  literally 
turned  the  other  cheek,  crying,  "Strike  again,  here  are  my 
arms,  my  head  and  my  cheeks."  The  man  accepted  the 
invitation  and  struck  him  down.  Fox  continued  to  talk  to 
them  and  his  fearlessness  conquered,  as  when  he  returned  to 
Ulverstone  a  soldier  approached  him  and  congratulated  him 
on  his  manhood,  courage,  and  for  his  valor,  offering  to  pro- 
tect him.  But  Fox  refused,  and  what  he  preached  again 
had  such  an  effect  that  his  enemies  withdrew,  one  of  the 
many  extraordinary  instances  in  which  the  Quakers  won 
their  victories  by  sheer  passive  resistance  and  persistence. 
This  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  the  success  of  the  Quakers 
everywhere:  possessed  with  complete  faith,  dying,  if  neces- 
sary. With  morality  and  honesty  on  their  side  they  always 
won  their  battles,  unarmed,  and  without  resisting  the 
enemy^s  blow  or  attack. 


THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL  8 1 


Additions  to  the  ranks  of  the  Quakers  were  becoming 
more  frequent  and  every  day  saw  men  acclaimed  as  preach- 
ers. Among  them,  attracting  attention,  were  John  Audland, 
Francis  Howgill,  John  Camm,  Richard  Hubberthorn,  Miles 
Halhead,  Edward  Burrough  and  Christopher  Holder.  The 
latter  was  destined  to  become  a  famous  preacher  in  America. 
He  was  a  resident  of  Winterbourne,  Alveston,  Gloucester- 
shire, near  Bristol,  and  was  one  of  the  early  converts  and 
followers  of  George  Fox.  He  gave  not  only  his  services, 
but  of  his  abundant  means.  Christopher  Holder  had  kins- 
men high  in  the  church,  who  doubtless  objected  as  seriously 
to  his  leaving  the  established  church  as  did  the  family  of 
Penn  to  the  conversion  of  William  Penn.  At  this  time 
Dr.  W^illiam  Holder,  who  married  Susanna  Wren,  sister  of 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  famous  architect,  was  correlated 
to  the  third  Prebendal  Stall  in  Ely  Cathedral  by  Bishop 
Wren.  Later  he  was  sub-deacon  of  the  Chapel  Royal  and 
sub-almoner  to  Charles  IL,  and  his  personal  friend.  Some 
of  the  Wren  family  became  converts  to  George  Fox, 
Christopher  Holder  and  other  Friends.  Susanna  Holder 
was  famed  for  her  charity  and  goodness.  She  was  buried 
in  the  crypt  of  St.  Pa-.^l's,  London,  by  the  side  of  her  hus- 
band. Dr.  William  Holder.  I  visited  the  tomb  in  1910, 
and  found  the  following  inscription  on  the  monument  to 
the  wife  of  Dr.  Holder  and  sister  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren : 

"In  memory  of  Susanna  Holder,  late  wife  of  William 
Holder,  D.  D.,  residentiary  of  Westminster  Abbey,  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  Christopher  Wren,  late  dean  of  Windsor,  and 
sister  of  Christopher  Wren,  Kt.  Among  others,  her  excel- 
lent endowments,  her  prudence,  virtue  and  piety,  her  charity 

was  no  small  blessing  to  the  neighborhood  wherever  she 
6 


82  THE  QUAKERS  AND  CROMWELL 


resided.  Having,  in  compassion  for  the  poor,  applied  her- 
self to  the  knowledge  of  medicinal  remedies  wherein  God 
gave  so  great  blessing  that  hundreds  were  happily  healed  by 
her,  including  King  Charles  L,  Queen  Catherine  and  many 
of  the  Court,  after  forty  years  happily  and  honorably 
passed  in  conjugal  state  and  care,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one 
she  piously  rendered  her  soul  to  God  the  last  day  of  June, 
1688." 

George  Fox's  attempts  to  preach  at  Walney  Island  and 
Cockan  were  met  by  the  most  violent  opposition  he  had 
yet  experienced.  Men  and  women  fought  with  flails  and 
pitchforks,  doing  their  best  to  kill  him,  as  well  as  his  friends, 
several  of  whom  usually  accompanied  him.  He  was  badly 
injured  as  the  result  of  this  and  was  sent  for  by  Margaret 
Fell  and  taken  to  Swarthmore  where  he  was  protected  by 
Judge  Fell,  until  he  was  again  able  to  take  up  the  ministry, 
which  had  now  become  more  than  strenuous. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  PROTECTORATE 

England  was  now  much  disturbed  politically.  It  is  true 
Cromwell  was  the  Protector  and  doubtless  could  have  been 
king  and  a  house  of  Cromwell  established  had  he  forced  the 
issue ;  but  his  troops  were  opposed  to  it.  Great  Britain  was 
virtually  a  republic,  and  Cromwell  endeavored  to  pacify 
the  Nobles,  the  Royalists,  and  his  army  of  Presbyterians  — 
a  most  difficult  feat  of  diplomacy.  The  so-called  Rump 
Parliament  was  in  control.  The  army  was  daily  becoming 
more  and  more  incensed  at  Parliament,  yet  the  members, 
not  seeing  the  shadow  on  the  wall,  had  the  temerity  to 
attempt  to  pass  a  bill  the  intent  of  which  was  to  continue 
in  office  all  the  existing  members  without  re-election. 

To  this  the  army  objected.  Cromwell,  a  man  of  infinite 
resources,  was  at  his  wit's  end.  His  desire  was  to  coalesce  all 
the  national  interests  —  a  feat  requiring  the  wisdom  of  a 
Solomon. 

About  this  time  George  Fox  was  visiting  at  Swarthmore. 
One  evening  while  engaged  in  a  discussion  with  Judge  Fell 
and  Justice  Benson  on  the  political  situation,  his  views  were 
asked  by  one  of  the  listeners.  His  reply  created  a  sensation, 
as  he  prophesied  that  in  two  weeks  Parliament  would 
adjourn,  despite  its  efforts,  and  the  Speaker  be  "plucked" 
from  his  seat.  While  Fox  was  prophesying  Cromwell  was 
holding  meetings  with  Sir  Harry  Vane  and  others,  and  as 
a  result,  he  warned  Parliament  that  their  bill  for  political 
perpetuity  would  not  be  permitted.    Parliament  pretended 


84  THE  PROTECTORATE 


to  acquiesce,  but  on  April  2oth  a  meeting  was  held  and 
the  attempt  was  made  to  rush  through  this  extraordinary 
bill.  Cromwell,  well  informed,  heard  of  it,  and,  as  George 
Fox  had  prophesied,  stopped  it.  With  a  few  good  Pres- 
byterian soldiers  he  walked  into  the  House,  denounced  the 
recreant  Members,  took  the  mace,  and  handed  it  to  his  men ; 
then  gave  the  order  to  one  of  them  to  "Fetch  down  the 
Speaker." 

As  the  Members  hied  out,  Cromwell  stood  and  watched 
them  and  did  not  hesitate  to  comment  on  their  action.  As 
Sir  Harry  Vane  passed  he  taunted  him  as  a  false  friend, 
as  Vane  had  prc/mised  him  certain  things  which  had  not 
been  performed.  "The  Lord  deliver  me  from  thee.  Sir 
Harry  Vane."  sneered  the  Protector.  This  was  the  end 
of  the  long  Parliament.  The  so-called  Barebones  Parlia- 
ment assembled;  religious  fervor  was  at  its  height,  and  some 
men  under  the  influence  of  Fox  were  among  its  number. 
Cromwell  opened  it  with  a  Puritan  sermon. 

The  Quakers  through  their  members  did  not  fail  in  their 
endeavors  to  influence  Parliament.  They  were  deeply  in- 
terested in  certain  new  measures.  One  was  the  abolition  of 
the  Court  of  Chancery.  Another  aimed  at  the  removal  of 
the  bar  to  civil  marriages,  while  a  third  purposed  to  wipe 
out  the  payment  of  tithes  and  of  lay  patronage.  These 
measures,  striking  at  Episcopalians  and  Royalists,  aroused 
much  antagonism  and  intense  excitement  among  the  lawyers 
and  the  clergy,  who  were  particularly  affected. 

While  the  Quakers  may  have  been  the  suggesters  of 
these  radical  and  excellent  movements,  the  Presbyterians 
were  the  cat's-paws  selected  to  lift  the  chestnut;  hence 
received  the  most  abuse.    That  the  ideas  were  right  no  one 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


85 


could  question  to-day,  but  like  all  the  reforms  of  the  Qua- 
kers, they  were  two  hundred  years  ahead  ot  the  time,  and 
there  was  a  vast  amount  of  ignorance  to  contend  against. 
That  the  propounder  of  these  new  ideas  had  been  justified  by 
Cromwell's  opening  address  was  evident,  but  the  masses 
seemed  to  consider  them  revolutionary,  and  England  was 
thrown  into  a  violent  conflict  of  words  and  opinions,  amid 
which  the  Quakers  were  preaching  in  the  churches  and  high- 
ways with  rapidly  increasing  numbers.  George  Fox  made 
a  point  to  preach  against  war,  with  which  the  country  ap- 
peared to  be  interminably  involved.  At  Carlisle  he  visited 
the  garrison  of  Cromwell's  troopers  and  preached  to  them, 
the  officers  sounding  the  call  and  ordering  the  garrison  to- 
gether that  they  might  hear  him,  upon  which  he  warned 
them  to  "kill  no  man,"  and  denounced  all  warfare  with  his 
usual  vigor. 

Soon  after  this  he  was  arrested  and  every  attempt  was 
made  to  hang  him,  his  commitment  being  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  a  blasphemer,  a  seducer  and  a  heretic.  The 
dungeon  in  which  Fox  was  confined  at  Carlisle  was  designed 
to  humiliate  him  to  the  utmost.  It  was  foul  beyond  any 
conception  and  only  to  be  compared  to  a  neglected  pen  for 
pigs.  There  were  absolutely  no  conveniences,  and  here 
vile  men  and  lewd  women  were  crowded  together  to  break 
the  heart  and  dishonor  the  leader  of  the  Quakers,  who,  far 
from  being  cast  down,  did  his  utmost  to  convert  and  re- 
humanize  the  wretches  who  surrounded  him.  Many  ladies 
and  gentlemen  went  to  see  Fox  in  jail,  among  them  James 
Parnell,  who  became  a  Friend  and  one  of  the  most  influential 
of  the  Society  in  later  years.  Other  converts  at  this  time 
were  Thomas  Briggs  and  Miles  Halhead,  who  preached 


86 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


eloquently,  and,  as  a  consequence,  were  beaten,  stoned  and 
hounded  from  place  to  place. 

A  characteristic  of  the  Friends  was  their  persistence,  and 
this,  with  the  fact  that  they  never  resisted  nor  were  known 
to  return  a  blow,  had  a  peculiar  effect  upon  their  enemies^ 
making  them  all  the  more  vicious  and  intolerant.  Yet 
in  many  instances  in  the  end  they  were  overcome  by  the 
evident  good  faith  and  piety  of  the  zealous  Quakers  and 
ceased  persecuting  them.  So  persistent  a  preacher  as  Fox 
could  not  fail  to  attract  wide-spread  attention,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  various  parties  began  to  realize  that 
Quakerism  was  a  potent  and  momentous  issue.  This  was 
demonstrated  when  the  friends  of  Fox  demanded  of  Parlia- 
ment an  investigation  into  the  facts  of  the  imprisonment 
of  their  leader  at  Carlisle,  calling  the  attention  of  Cromwell 
to  the  horrors  of  the  situation  and  its  gross  injustice,  showing 
that,  while  he  was  posing  as  the  Protector,  as  the  champion 
of  freedom  in  religious  thought,  a  Christian  was  threatened 
with  hanging  at  Carlisle  on  a  question  of  religion  and  the 
freedom  of  conscience.  As  a  result,  in  all  probability,  the 
Governor  and  Anthony  Pearson  investigated  the  situation, 
and  in  a  short  time  Fox  was  liberated. 

The  extraordinary  nature  of  all  writings  at  this  time  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  following  letters  by  George  Fox, 
Gervase  Benson  and  Anthony  Pearson.  I  have  in  my  pos- 
session letters  written  by  kinsmen  and  kinswomen  among 
Friends  as  late  as  i860  which  are  equally  remarkable  for 
the  continual  use  of  religious  terms  and  quotations: 
* 'Friends,  Thomas  Craston  and  Cuthbert  Studholm, 

"Your  noise  is  gone  up  to  London  before  the  sober  people. 
What  imprisoning,  what  gagging,  what  havoc  and  spoiling 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


87 


the  goods  of  people  have  you  made  within  these  two  years ! 
Unlike  men;  as  though  you  had  never  read  the  Scriptures 
or  had  not  minded  them!  Is  this  the  end  of  Carlisle's 
religion?  Is  this  the  end  of  your  ministry?  Is  this  the 
end  of  your  church,  and  of  your  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity? You  have  shamed  it  by  your  folly,  madness,  and 
blind  zeal.  Was  it  not  always  the  work  of  the  blind  guides, 
watchmen,  leaders,  and  false  prophets,  to  prepare  war 
against  them  that  could  not  put  it  into  their  mouths?  Have 
you  not  seen  the  priests'  pack-horses  and  executioners? 
When  they  spur  you  up  to  bear  the  sword  against  the  just, 
do  not  you  run  on  against  those  that  cannot  hold  up  such 
as  the  Scriptures  always  testified  against?  Yet  will  you 
lift  up  your  unholy  hands,  and  call  upon  God  with  your 
polluted  lips,  and  pretend  a  fast,  who  are  full  of  strife  and 
debate.  Did  your  hearts  never  burn  within  you?  Did  you 
never  come  to  question  your  conditions?  Are  you  wholly 
given  up  to  the  devil's  lusts,  to  persecute?  Where  is  your 
loving  enemies?  Where  is  your  entertaining  strangers? 
Where  is  your  overcoming  evil  with  good?  Where  are 
your  teachers,  that  can  stop  the  mouths  of  gainsayers,  and 
such  as  oppose  themselves?  Have  you  no  ministers  of  the 
Spirit,  no  soldiers  with  spiritual  weapons,  displaying 
Christ's  colours?  But  all  the  dragons,  the  murderers,  the 
persecutors,  arm  of  flesh,  Cain's  weapons,  chief  priests 
taking  counsel,  Judas  and  the  multitude  with  swords  and 
staves,  Sodom's  company  raging  about  Lot's  house,  like  the 
priests  and  princes  against  Jeremiah,  like  the  dragon,  beast 
and  great  whore,  and  the  false  church  which  John  saw 
should  cast  into  prison,  kill,  and  persecute?  Whose 
weapons  are  you  bearing?    Doth  not  the  false  church,  the 


88 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


whore,  make  merchandise  of  cattle,  corn,  wine  and  oil,  even 
to  the  very  souls  of  men'?  Hath  not  all  this  been  since 
the  true  church  went  into  the  wilderness?  Read  Revela- 
tions the  12th,  with  the  iSth;  do  you  not  read  and  see 
what  a  spirit  you  are  of,  and  what  a  bottomless  pit  you 
are  in?  Have  not  you  dishonoured  the  place  of  justice  and 
authority?  What!  turned  your  sword  backward,  like  mad- 
men, who  are  a  praise  to  the  evil  doer,  and  would  be  a  ter- 
ror to  the  good,  with  all  force  and  might  to  stop  the  way 
of  justice!  Doth  not  the  Lord,  think  you,  behold  your 
actions?  How  many  have  you  wronged?  How  many 
have  you  imprisoned,  persecuted,  and  put  out  of  your  syna- 
gogues? Are  you  they  that  must  fulfill  the  prophecy  of 
Christ,  Matt.  XXIII,  John  XVI?  Read  the  Scriptures, 
see  how  unlike  you  are  to  the  prophets,  Christ,  and  his  apos- 
tles, and  what  a  visage  you  have,  like  unto  them  that  per- 
secuted the  prophets,  Christ  and  the  apostles.  You  are 
found  in  their  steps,  wrestling  with  flesh  and  blood,  not 
with  principalities  and  powers,  and  spiritual  wickedness; 
your  teachers  imprisoning  and  persecuting  for  outward 
things,  you  being  their  executioners;  the  like  whereof  hath 
not  been  in  all  the  nations.  The  havoc  that  hath  been 
made,  the  spoiling  of  people's  good,  taking  away  their 
oxen  and  fatted  beeves,  their  sheep,  corn,  wool  and  house- 
hold goods,  and  giving  them  to  the  priests  that  have  done 
no  work  for  them.  More  like  moss  troopers  than  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  they  take  them  from  friends;  suing  them  in 
your  courts,  and  fining  them  because  they  will  not  break  the 
command  of  Christ;  that  is,  because  they  will  not  swear. 
Thus  you  act  against  them  that  do  not  lift  up  a  hand  against 
you,  and  as  much  as  you  turn  against  them  you  turn  against 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


Christ.  But  he  is  risen  that  will  plead  their  cause,  and  you 
cannot  be  hid.  Your  works  are  come  to  light,  and  the  end 
of  your  ministr)'  is  seen,  what  it  is  for;  for  means.  You 
have  dishonored  the  truth,  the  gospel ;  and  are  of  those  that 
make  it  chargeable.  You  have  lost  your  glory.  You  have 
dishonoured  yourselves.  Persecution  was  ever  blind  and 
mad.  Read  the  apostle,  what  he  said  of  himself,  when  he 
was  in  your  nature.  Exaltation  and  pride,  and  your  lift- 
ing up  yourselves,  hath  brought  you  to  this;  not  being 
humble,  not  doing  justice,  not  loving  mercy.  When  such 
as  have  been  beaten  and  bruised  by  your  rude  company, 
to  whom  you  are  a  praise  and  an  encouragement,  have 
come  and  laid  things  before  you,  that  you  might  have  done 
justice,  preserved  and  kept  peace,  you,  knowing  they  could 
not  swear,  have  put  an  oath  to  them.  This  hath  been  your 
trick  and  cover,  that  ye  might  not  do  justice  to  the  just; 
but  by  this  means  go  on  still  further  to  encourage  the  evil 
doer.  But  the  Lord  sees  your  hearts  I  If  ye  were  not  men 
past  feeling,  ye  would  fear  and  tremble  before  the  God  of 
the  whole  earth;  who  is  risen,  and  will  stain  your  glory, 
mar  your  pride,  deface  your  beauty,  and  lay  it  in  the  dust. 
Though  for  a  time  you  may  swell  in  your  pride,  glory  in 
your  shame,  and  make  a  mock  of  God's  messengers,  who, 
for  reproving  sin  in  the  gate,  are  become  your  prey;  you 
will  feel  the  heavy  hand  of  God  and  his  judgments  at  the 
last.  This  is  from,  a  lover  of  the  truth,  of  righteousness, 
and  of  your  souls;  but  a  witness  against  all  such  as  make 
a  trade  of  the  prophets',  Christ's  and  the  apostles'  words, 
and  are  found  in  the  steps  of  them  who  persecuted  the 
prophets',  Christ's,  and  the  apostles'  life;  who  persecute 
those  that  will  not  hold  you  up,  put  into  your  mouths  and 


90  THE  PROTECTORATE 

give  you  means.  Tythes  were  before  the  law,  and  tythes 
were  in  the  law;  but  tythes  since  the  days  of  the  apostles 
have  been  only  since  the  false  church  got  up.  Christ,  who 
is  come  to  end  the  law,  and  to  end  war,  redeems  men  out 
of  the  tenths  and  out  of  the  nines  also.  The  redeemed  of 
the  Lord  shall  reign  upon  the  earth,  and  know  the  election 
which  was  before  the  world  began.  Since  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  tythes  have  been  set  up  by  the  papists,  and  by 
them  that  went  from  the  apostles  into  the  world;  set  up 
by  the  false  church  that  made  merchandise  of  the  people, 
since  the  true  church  went  into  the  wilderness.  But  now 
is  the  judgment  of  the  great  whore  come;  the  beast  and 
false  prophet  (the  old  dragon)  shall  be  taken  and  cast  into 
the  iire,  and  the  Lamb  and  his  saints  shall  have  the  victory. 
Now  is  Christ  come  who  will  make  war  in  righteousness 
and  destroy  with  the  sword  of  his  mouth  all  these  inventors 
and  inventions  that  have  been  set  up  since  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  and  since  the  true  church  went  into  the  wilderness. 
And  the  everlasting  gospel,  which  is  the  power  of  God, 
shall  be  preached  again  to  all  nations,  kindreds,  and  tongues, 
in  this  the  Lamb's  day;  before  whom  you  shall  appear  to 
judgment.  You  have  no  way  to  escape.  For  he  hath  ap- 
peared who  is  the  First  and  the  Last,  the  Beginning  and  the 
Ending,  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega:  he  that  was  dead  is 
alive  again,  and  lives  forever  more ! 

"George  Fox." 

The  following  is  from  Gervase  Benson  and  Anthony 
Pearson :  "He,  who  is  called  George  Fox,  who  is  persecuted 
by  rulers  and  magistrates,  by  justices,  priests,  and  the  people, 
and  who  suffers  the  imprisonment  of  his  body  at  this  time  as 
a  blasphemer,  an  heretick,  and  a  seducer,  him  do  we  witness 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


(who  in  a  measure  are  made  partakers  of  the  same  life 
that  lives  in  him)  to  be  a  minister  of  the  eternal  word  of 
God,  by  whom  the  everlasting  gospel  is  preached;  by  the 
powerful  preaching  whereof  the  eternal  Father  of  the  saints 
hath  opened  the  blind  eyes,  unstopped  the  deaf  ears,  let  the 
oppressed  go  free,  and  hath  raised  the  dead  out  of  the 
graves.  Christ  is  now  preached  in  and  among  the  saints, 
the  same  that  he  ever  was;  and  because  his  heavenly  image 
is  borne  up  in  this  his  faithful  servant,  therefore  doth  fallen 
man  (rulers,  priests  and  people)  persecute  him.  Because 
he  lives  up  out  of  the  fall,  and  testifies  against  the  works 
of  the  world,  that  the  deeds  thereof  are  evil,  he  suffers  by 
you  magistrates,  not  as  an  evil  doer.  Thus  it  was  ever 
where  the  seed  of  God  was  kept  in  prison  under  the  cursed 
nature,  that  nature  sought  to  imprison  them  in  whom  it 
was  raised.  The  Lord  will  make  him  to  you  as  a  burden- 
some stone;  for  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Almighty  is 
wicked;  and  shall  not  be  put  up  till  it  hath  cut  down  all 
corrupt  judges,  justices,  magistrates,  priests  and  professors; 
till  he  hath  brought  his  wonderful  thing  to  pass  in  the 
earth,  which  is  to  make  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth, 
wherein  shall  dwell  righteousness;  which  now  he  is  about 
to  do.  Therefore  fear  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  ye  judges, 
justices,  commanders,  priests  and  people;  ye  that  forget 
God  suddenly  will  the  Lord  come  and  destroy  you  with  an 
utter  destruction,  and  will  sweep  your  names  out  of  the 
earth,  and  will  restore  his  people  judges  as  at  the  first,  and 
counsellors  as  at  the  beginning.  And  all  persecutors  shall 
partake  of  the  plagues  of  the  whore,  who  hath  made  the 
kings  of  the  earth  and  the  great  men  drunk  with  the  wine 
of  her  fornications,  and  hath  drunk  the  blood  of  the  saints ; 


92 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


and  therefore  shall  you  be  partakers  of  her  plagues.  We 
are  not  suffered  to  see  our  friend  in  prison,  whom  we  wit- 
ness to  be  a  messenger  of  the  Living  God.  Now,  all  peo- 
ple, mind  whether  this  be  according  to  the  law,  or  from  the 
wicked,  perverse,  envious  will  of  the  envious  rulers  and 
magistrates,  who  are  of  the  same  generation  that  persecuted 
Jesus  Christ;  for  he  said,  'as  they  have  done  to  me,  so  will 
they  do  to  you.'  And  as  he  took  the  love,  the  kindness, 
the  service  that  was  shewed  and  performed  to  any  of  his 
afflicted  ones  in  their  sufferings  and  distress,  as  done  unto 
himself ;  so  the  injuries  and  wrongs  that  were  done  by  any  to 
any  of  his  little  ones,  he  resented  as  done  unto  himself  also. 
Therefore  you,  who  are  so  far  from  visiting  him  yourselves 
in  his  suffering  servant  that  ye  will  not  suffer  his  brethren 
to  visit  him,  ye  must  depart,  ye  workers  of  iniquity,  into 
the  lake  that  burns  with  fire.  The  Lord  is  coming  to 
thresh  the  mountains  and  will  beat  them  to  dust;  and  all 
corrupt  rulers,  corrupt  officers  and  corrupt  laws,  the  Lord 
will  take  vengeance  on,  by  which  the  tender  consciences  of 
his  people  are  oppressed.  He  will  give  his  people  his  law, 
and  will  judge  his  people  himself,  not  according  to  the  sight 
of  the  eye  and  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  with  righteousness 
and  equity.  Now  are  your  hearts  made  manifest  to  be  full 
of  envy  against  the  living  Truth  of  God,  which  is  made 
manifest  in  his  people,  who  are  condemned  and  despised  of 
the  world,  and  scornfully  called  Quakers.  You  are  worse 
than  the  heathens  that  put  Paul  in  prison,  for  none  of  his 
friends  or  acquaintances  were  hindered  to  come  to  him  by 
them ;  therefore  they  shall  be  witnesses  against  you.  Ye  are 
made  manifest  to  the  saints  to  be  of  the  same  generation 
that  put  Christ  to  death,  and  that  put  the  apostle  in  prison, 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


93 


on  the  same  pretence  as  you  act  under;  in  calling  truth  error, 
and  the  ministers  of  God  blasphemers,  as  they  did.  But 
the  day  is  dreadful  and  terrible  that  shall  come  upon  you, 
ye  evil  magistrates,  priests,  and  people,  who  profess  the 
truth  in  words  outwardly  and  yet  persecute  the  power  of 
truth  and  them  that  stand  in  and  for  the  truth.  While  ye 
have  time,  prize  it,  and  remember  what  is  written,  Isa. 
LIV.  17." 

George  Fox  was  continually  in  the  public  eye  at  this  time, 
and  Cromwell  particularly  was  advised  as  to  his  movements. 
Now  some  sermon  was  sent  to  him,  or  Fox  or  his  followers 
joined  him  in  his  drives,  and  preached  to  him  on  horseback; 
and  unquestionably  the  word  as  interpreted  by  Fox  was  not 
in  the  main  objectionable  to  the  greatest  man  of  England. 
There  were  seasons  when  the  intervention  of  the  name  of 
Fox  was  not  pleasant.  One  day,  some  recruits  of  Crom- 
well's army  were  heard  refusing  to  swear  and  were  taken 
to  task  by  the  Protector.  "Why  will  you  not  swear  to 
defend  your  country  when  you  are  willing  to  enter  the  army 
and  fight  for  it?"  asked  the  puzzled  commander.  "George 
Fox  has  convinced  us  that  it  is  wrong  to  swear,"  replied 
the  soldiers;  "swear  not  at  all,"  says  the  Bible. 

What  Cromwell  answered  history  does  not  state,  but  he 
accepted  their  affirmation.  He  wanted  the  men  to  fight 
and  was,  doubtless,  a  protagonist  of  the  principle,  "Put 
your  trust  in  the  Lord,  but  keep  your  powder  dry,"  used 
in  later  times.  The  protest  of  Justice  Gervase  Benson  that 
he  was  not  permitted  to  visit  Fox  and  learn  personally  of 
his  condition,  resulted  in  his  being  liberated  and  allowed  to 
join  his  friends.  Fox  now  continued  his  work  over  the 
country  and  was  met  again  and  still  again  by  charges  from 


94 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


the  Ranters,  priests  and  others.  Fox  converted  Lady  Mon- 
tague to  his  belief,  Edward  Pyot,  and  with  many  influential 
friends,  he  swept  England  from  Holderness  to  Bristol  and 
from  Lands  End  to  Carlisle. 

In  their  desperation  for  effective  charges,  the  enemies  of 
Quakerism  stated  that  George  Fox  was  scheming  against 
the  life  of  the  Protector,  and  Colonel  Hacker  [ancestor  of 
the  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and  Philadelphia  Hackers,]  with 
seventeen  troopers  arrested  him  for  plotting  against  Crom- 
well. He  was  soon  released  and  turned  his  attention  to  an 
attempt  to  rebuke  the  Pope  and  other  rulers  in  a  peroration 
which  reads  as  follows : 

"Ye  heads,  rulers,  kings,  and  nobles,  of  all  sorts,  be  not 
bitter,  nor  hasty  in  persecuting  the  Lambs  of  Christ,  neither 
turn  yourselves  against  the  visitation  of  God,  and  his  tender 
love  and  mercies  from  on  high,  who  sent  to  visit  you;  lest 
the  Lord's  hand  and  power  take  hold  swiftly  upon  you; 
which  is  now  stretched  over  the  world.  It  is  turned  against 
kings,  and  shall  turn  wise  men  backward,  will  bring  their 
crowns  to  the  dust,  and  lay  them  low  and  level  with  the 
earth.  The  Lord  will  be  king,  who  gives  crowns  to  whom- 
soever obey  his  will.  This  is  the  age,  wherein  the  Lord 
God  of  Heaven  and  earth  is  staining  the  pride  of  man  and 
defacing  his  glory.  You  that  profess  Christ  and  do  not  love 
your  enemies,  but  on  the  contrary  shut  up  and  imprison 
those  who  are  his  friends;  these  are  marks  that  you  are  out 
of  his  life,  and  do  not  love  Christ,  who  do  not  love  the 
things  that  he  commands.  The  day  of  the  Lord's  wrath 
is  kindling,  his  fire  is  going  forth  to  burn  up  the  wicked, 
which  will  leave  neither  root  nor  branch.  They  that  have 
lost  their  habitation  with  God  are  out  of  his  Spirit  that  gave 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


95 


forth  the  scriptures;  and  from  the  light  that  Jesus  Christ 
hath  enlightened  them  withal;  and  so  from  the  true  founda- 
tion. Therefore  be  swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak,  and  slower 
to  persecute;  for  the  Lord  is  bringing  his  people  to  him- 
self, from  all  the  world's  ways,  to  Christ  the  way;  from 
all  the  world's  churches,  to  the  church  which  is  in  God, 
the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  from  all  the  world's 
teachers,  to  teach  the  people  himself  by  his  Spirit ;  from  all 
the  world's  images,  into  the  image  of  himself;  and  from 
all  the  world's  crosses  of  stone  or  wood,  into  his  power 
which  is  the  cross  of  Christ.  For  all  these,  images,  crosses, 
and  likenesses  are  among  them  that  are  apostatized  from 
the  image  of  God,  the  power  of  God,  the  cross  of  Christ, 
which  now  fathoms  the  world,  and  is  throwing  down  that 
which  is  contrary  to  it;  which  power  of  God  never  changes. 

Let  this  go  to  the  kings  of  France  and  of  Spain,  and  to 
the  Pope,  for  them  to  prove  all  things  and  hold  that  which 
is  good.  And  first  to  prove  that  they  have  not  quenched 
the  Spirit ;  for  the  mighty  day  of  the  Lord  is  come,  and 
coming  upon  all  wickedness,  ungodliness  and  unrighteous- 
ness of  men,  who  will  plead  with  all  flesh  by  fire  and  by 
sword.  And  the  truth,  the  crown  of  glory,  the  sceptre  of 
righteousness  over  all  shall  be  exalted;  which  shall  answer 
that  of  God  in  everyone  upon  the  earth,  though  they  be 
from  it.  Christ  is  come  a  light  into  the  world,  and  doth 
enlighten  everyone  that  cometh  into  the  world,  that  all 
through  him  might  believe.  He  that  feeleth  the  light,  that 
Christ  hath  enlightened  him  withal,  he  feeleth  Christ  in  his 
mind  and  the  cross  of  Christ,  which  is  the  power  of  God; 
he  shall  not  need  to  have  a  cross  of  stone  or  wood  to  put 
him  in  mind  of  Christ,  or  of  his  cross,  which  is  the  power  of 
God  manifest  in  the  inward  parts." 


96 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


Many  reports  regarding  the  Quakers  had  reached  Wales, 
among  other  places,  and  at  the  request  of  some  of  his  parish- 
ioners a  priest,  named  Morgan  Floyd,  sent  two  of  his  con- 
gregation to  listen  to  the  Quakers  in  England  and  report 
back  to  the  church.  One  member  of  this  committee  was 
John  Ap  John  of  Wrexham,  a  brother  of  the  author's  eighth 
great  grandfather,  Edmund  Johnson.* 

George  Fox  in  his  Journal  writes:  "When  these  Triers 
came  amongst  us  the  power  of  the  Lord  seized  upon  them 
and  they  were  both  convinced  of  the  truth."  John  Ap  John 
first  met  George  Fox  at  the  home  of  Judge  Fell,  at  Swarth- 
more.  He  was  converted,  and  later  became  one  of  the 
leading  ministers  among  Friends.  He  lived  at  Trevor, 
Wales,  and  became  an  intimate  friend  of  George  Fox,  and 
accompanied  him  on  many  of  his  tours  through  Wales  and 
England.  His  work  is  referred  to  in  George  Fox's  Journal, 
Levick's  Early  Welsh  Quakers,  and  in  a  manuscript  owned 

*It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  this  family  and  the  Goves,  became 
prominent  Quaker  families  in  New  England  in  later  years.  The 
descent  is  as  follows: 

(1)  Edmund  Johnson,  Poontypool,  Wales,  mar. —  1530;  their  son 

(2)  John,  b.  1588;  m. — iThey  had  two  sons,  Edmund  and  John 
Ap  John. 

(3)  The  former  married  Mary — 1635  at  Hampton,  Mass. 

(4)  Their  son  Peter,  b.— 1639;  m.  Ruth  Moulton  of  Hampton,  N.  H. 

(5)  Their  son  Edmund,  b.  1671;  m.  Abigail  Green. 

(6)  Their  daughter,  m.  John  Gove,  1715. 

(7)  Their  son  Daniel,  m.  Rebecca  Hunt  of  Hampton. 

(8)  Their  son  Daniel,  m.  Miriam  Cartland  of  Weare,  N.  H. 

(9)  Their  son,  Moses,  b.  1774;  m.  Hannah  Chase. 

(10)  Their  son,  John  C.  Gove,  m.  Hannah  Green  Gove. 

(11)  Their  daughter,  Emily,  m.  Dr.  J.  B.  Holder,  1850,  of  Lynn, 
Mass. 

(12)  Their  son,  Charles  F.  Holder  (the  author),  married  Sarah  E. 
Ufford. 


THE  PROTECTORATE  97 


by  William  Gregory  Norris  of  Coalbrookdale.  His  life  has 
also  been  published  by  Norman  Penney  of  London. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  most  of  the  Quakers  at 
this  time  believed  implicitly  that  justice  would  come  to 
those  who  ill  treated  others;  a  common  superstition  in  all 
religious  bodies  in  their  infancy.  Fox  refers  to  certain 
soldiers  of  Cromwell  who  at  first  refused  to  take  the  oath, 
then  later  on  did  take  it.  Here  is  the  ominous  overtaking: 
''but  not  long  outlived  it,  for  marching  afterwards  into  Scot- 
land and  passing  by  a  garrison  there,  these,  thinking  they 
had  been  enemies,  hred  at  them,  whereby  several  were 
killed."    Many  illustrations  of  this  could  be  given. 

The  doctrine  of  Cromwell,  and  that  of  the  Puritans  in 
general,  was  not  verv  different  from  that  of  the  Quakers, 
though  the  latter  would  never  have  admitted  this.  There 
were  many  non-essentials  on  both  sides :  the  plain  language, 
the  wearing  of  the  hat,  and  other  "peculiarities"  which 
seemed  of  vital  importance  in  1653.  While  Cromwell  treated 
the  Quakers  better  than  all  other  victors  in  England,  he  was 
a  man  of  war,  a  violent  personage,  and  few,  if  any,  could 
have  been  found  who  would  have  believed  that  in  1911  the 
Protector  would  have  been  looked  upon  by  those  who  could 
study  his  character  and  analyze  it  judiciously,  as  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  history. 

As  George  Fox  had  endeavored  to  convince  the  Pope  that 
Catholicism  was  wrong,  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  his 
followers  would  not  attempt  to  bring  the  doughty  Protector 
to  their  terms,  and  he  was  continually  their  shining  mark. 
In  the  latter  part  of  1654,  Fox  had  sixty  well-equipped 
ministers,  most  of  them  men  of  intellectual  attainment,  and 
not  a  few  from  the  higher  ranks  of  life,  from  the  best  fam- 
ilies of  several  counties. 
7 


98 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


Such  was  Christopher  Holder,  the  fourth  great  grandfather 
of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  the  American  philanthropist.  A 
prominent  Friend  at  this  time  was  Edward  Burrough, 
student  and  author.  Others  were  Francis  Howgill,  dis- 
tinguished as  a  writer  and  eloquent  preacher;  Anthony- 
Holder,  author,  and  brother  of  Christopher;  Anthony  Pear- 
son, an  ex-justice;  Robert  Dring,  Joshua  Cole,  William 
Crouch,  George  Whitehead,  John  Cramm,  Thomas  Holmes 
and  others.  George  Fox  marshalled  these  ministers  with 
the  cleverness  of  a  general.  One  or  two  would  go  to  Wales 
and  join  John  Ap  John.  Two  more  ministers  he  sent  to 
Holderness  to  canvass  Yorkshire  and  cover  that  ground; 
others  went  to  Bristol  where  Joshua  Cole  and  Anthony- 
Holder  received  them.  Christopher  Holder  and  others  were 
speaking  near  Ilchester,  in  jail  and  out,  and  so  the  kingdom 
was  covered  in  a  most  extraordinary  way.  As  the  opposi- 
tion to  them  increased,  their  numbers  multiplied,  and  these 
men  of  peace  succeeded  in  keeping  the  Commonwealth  in  an 
uproar,  and  their  demands  for  reform  before  the  world. 

Friends  had  so  increased  in  1654  that  regular  meetings 
were  established  at  various  places,  in  Bristol,  at  Anthony 
Holder's,  and  at  the  FelPs  at  Swarthmore. 

The  first  settled  meeting  in  London  was  held  at  the  home 
of  Sarah  Sawyer  in  Aldgate  Street.  It  was  a  tenet  of  the 
Friends  that  women  could  speak,  and  the  first  public  dis- 
course in  London  by  a  woman  was  given  by  Annie  Downer, 
who  became  the  wife  of  a  prominent  Friend,  George  White- 
head. New  meetings  were  organized  everywhere;  one  in 
the  house  of  one  Bates  on  Tower  Street,  another  in  the  home 
of  Gerard  Robert  in  Thomas  Apostles  Street,  and  soon  after 
this  a  large  house  known  as  the  "Bull  and  the  Mouth"  was 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


99 


rented  by  Martin  C.  Grand  near  Aldgate,  and  meetings  held 
in  the  hotel.  From  this  time  on  meetings  increased  in  num- 
ber and  size  all  over  England,  Ireland  and  Wales,  despite 
the  efforts  to  break  them  up  and  discourage  the  members. 

In  this  campaign  for  reform,  Cromwell  was  never  neg- 
lected. George  Fox  had  preached  at  him  many  times,  and 
the  earnest  and  cultivated  Francis  Howgill  was  now  selected 
to  visit  Cromwell  in  person  at  Court.  He  discussed  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Friends  with  the  great  commander.  Crom- 
well questioned  as  to  whether  his  message  was  the  Word  of 
God,  as  Howgill  claimed,  and  promised  to  see  him  at  a 
later  and  more  propitious  time.  Not  hearing  from  him, 
Howgill  wrote  him  the  following  letter  as  a  reminder: 

"Friend:  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  come  to  thee,  to 
declare  the  word  of  the  Eord,  as  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord, 
and  deal  plainly  with  thee,  as  I  was  commanded,  and  not 
to  petition  thee  for  anything,  but  to  declare  what  the  Lord 
had  revealed  to  me,  concerning  thee;  and  when  I  had  de- 
livered what  I  was  com_manded,  thou  questionedst  it, 
whether  it  was  the  word  of  the  Lord  or  not,  and  soughtest 
by  thy  reason  to  put  it  off;  and  we  have  waited  some  days 
since,  but  cannot  speak  to  thee,  therefore  I  was  moved  to 
write  to  thee,  and  clear  my  conscience,  and  leave  thee. 
Therefore  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
I  chose  thee  out  of  all  Nations,  when  thou  wast  little  in 
thine  own  eyes,  and  threw  down  the  mountains  and  the 
powers  of  the  earth  before  thee,  which  had  established 
wickedness  by  a  law,  and  I  cut  them  down,  and  broke  the 
yokes  and  bonds  of  the  oppressor,  and  made  them  stoop 
before  thee,  and  I  made  them  as  a  plain  before  thee,  that 
thou  passedst  over  them,  and  trod  upon  their  necks;  but  thus 


lOO 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


saith  the  Lord,  now  thy  heart  is  not  upright  before  me,  but 
thou  takest  counsel,  but  not  of  me;  and  thou  art  establish- 
ing peace,  but  not  by  me;  and  thou  art  setting  up  laws, 
and  not  by  me ;  and  my  name  is  not  feared,  nor  am  I  sought 
after;  but  thine  own  wisdom  thou  establishest.  What, 
saith  the  Lord,  have  I  thrown  down  all  the  oppressors,  and 
broken  their  laws,  and  thou  art  now  going  about  to  estab- 
lish them  again,  and  art  going  to  build  again  that  which  I 
have  destroyed?  Wherefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  Wilt 
thou  limit  me,  and  set  bonds  to  me,  when,  and  where,  and 
how,  and  by  whom  I  shall  declare  myself,  and  publish  my 
name"?  Then  will  I  break  thy  cord,  and  remove  thy  stake, 
and  exalt  myself  in  thy  overthrow.  Therefore,  this  is  the 
word  of  the  Lord  to  thee,  whether  thou  wilt  hear  or  forbear. 
If  thou  take  not  away  all  those  laws  which  are  made  con- 
cerning religion,  whereby  the  people  which  are  dear  in 
mine  eyes  are  oppressed,  thou  shalt  not  be  established; 
but  as  thou  hast  trodden  down  my  enemies  by  my  power, 
so  shalt  thou  be  trodden  down  by  my  power,  and  thou  shalt 
know  that  I  am  the  Lord;  for  my  Gospel  shall  not  be  estab- 
lished by  thy  sword,  nor  by  thy  law,  but  by  my  might, 
and  by  my  power,  and  by  my  Spirit.  Unto  thee,  this  is 
the  Word  of  the  Lord,  Stint  not  the  Eternal  Spirit,  by  which 
I  will  publish  my  name,  when  and  where,  and  how  I  will ; 
for  if  thou  dost,  thou  shalt  be  as  dust  before  the  wind;  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it,  and  he  will  perform  his. 
promise.  For  this  is  that  I  look  for  at  thy  hands,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  thou  shouldst  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  let 
the  oppressed  go  free.  Are  not  many  shut  up  in  prison, 
and  some  stocked,  some  stoned,  some  shamefully  entreated*? 
And  some  are  judged  blasphemers  by  those  who  know  not 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


lOl 


the  Lord,  and  by  those  laws  which  have  been  made  by  the 
will  of  man,  and  stand  not  in  the  will  of  God;  and  some 
suffer  now  because  they  cannot  hold  up  the  types,  and  so 
deny  Christ  come  in  the  flesh  ;  and  some  have  been  shut  up 
in  prison  because  they  could  not  swear,  and  because  they 
abide  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ;  and  some,  for  declaring 
against  sin  openly  in  the  markets,  have  sufFered  as  evil- 
doers; and  now,  if  thou  let  them  suffer  in  this  nature  by 
those  laws,  and  count  it  just,  I  will  visit  for  those  things, 
saith  the  Lord;  I  will  break  the  yoke  from  off  their  necks, 
and  I  will  bring  deliverance  another  way,  and  thou  shalt 
know  that  I  am  the  Lord. 

"Moved  of  the  Lord  to  declare  and  write  this,  by  a  servant 
of  the  Truth  for  Jesus'  sake,  and  a  lover  of  thy  soul,  called 

"Francis  Howgill.'' 

This  letter  was  seen  by  some  of  Cromwell's  retainers  and 
was  the  cause  of  a  number  joining  the  Friends.  George 
Fox  met  Cromwell  later.  He  was  preaching  at  Swanning- 
ton  where  he  was  arrested  by  Colonel  Hacker  (who  later 
told  Margaret  Fell  that  he  regretted  his  action)  on  the 
charge  that  he  was  plotting  against  Oliver  Cromwell.  This 
was  a  manifestly  false  charge,  as  the  Friends  held  it  as  one 
of  their  prime  virtues  to  be  loyal  to  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment, not  to  plot  or  to  carry  on  anything  underhanded.  It 
is  evident  that  Colonel  Hacker,  who  was  executed  later,  was 
not  inclined  unfairly  to  Fox,  and  in  the  evidence  gave  him 
every  opportunity  to  escape;  repeatedly  asking  him  to  go 
home  and  refrain  from  entering  churches.  But  as  Fox 
would  not  promise.  Colonel  Hacker  had  no  alternative 
but  to  arrest  him.  To  place  the  responsibility  in  the  proper 
hands,  Colonel  Hacker  sent  Fox  to  Cromwell  in  charge 


102 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


of  Captain  Drury  of  the  Guards.  Fox  at  the  last  moment 
requested  to  see  Hacker  and  asked  for  his  release,  claim- 
ing that  he  had  committed  no  sin.  Hacker  refused, 
and  very  naturally,  as  Fox  would  not  give  his  word 
to  go  home  and  abstain  from  harassing  the  priests. 
Then  Fox  fell  upon  his  knees  and  prayed  that  the  Lord 
might  forgive  the  soldier.  He  compared  him  to  Pilate 
(and  note  here  again  the  ominous  and  prophetic  note  of  the 
Quaker),  "though  he  would  wash  his  hands;  and  when  the 
day  of  his  misery  and  trial  should  come  upon  him,  I  bid 
him,  Then  remember  what  I  had  said  to  him.  But  he  was 
stirred  up  and  set  on  by  Stephens,  and  the  other  priests 
and  professors,  wherein  their  envy  and  baseness  was  mani- 
fest; who,  when  they  could  not  overcome  me  by  disputes 
and  arguments,  nor  resist  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  that  was 
in  me,  they  got  soldiers  to  take  me  up." 

Afterward,  when  Colonel  Hacker  was  imprisoned  in  Lon- 
don, a  day  or  two  before  his  execution,  he  was  put  in  mind 
of  what  he  had  done  against  the  innocent;  and  he  remem- 
bered it,  and  confessed  it  to  Margaret  Fell;  saying,  "He 
knew  well  whom  she  meant;  and  he  had  trouble  upon  him 
for  it.  So  his  son,  who  had  told  his  father  I  had  reigned 
too  long,  and  it  was  time  to  have  me  cut  off,  might  observe 
how  his  father  was  cut  off  afterwards,  he  being  hanged  at 
Tyburn." 

It  was  evidently  the  desire  of  Hacker  and  Drury  to  give 
Fox  every  opportunity  to  escape,  as  on  the  way  to  jail 
Captain  Drury  several  times  offered  to  release  him,  and  at 
last  told  him  to  go,  on  his  promise  to  keep  away  from  meet- 
ings for  two  weeks.  But  Fox  declined  to  promise;  he  re- 
fused to  bind  himself  by  conditions,  and,  as  a  result,  in  the 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


103 


morning  he  was  taken  before  Cromwell,  but  not  before  he 
had  visited  William  Dewsbury  and  Marmaduke  Storr,  who 
were  in  prison.  Cromwell,  unquestionably,  believed  the 
rumors  and  charges  of  a  plot  against  him,  led  by  Fox,  as 
he  demanded  that  Fox  give  him  a  signed  paper  renouncing 
any  attempt  against  him. 

This  interview  of  George  Fox  with  Cromwell  was  one  of 
the  most  dramatic  events  of  his  career.  Without  question, 
he  touched  the  heart  of  the  great  commander  deeply,  and, 
had  the  opportunity  been  afforded,  he  would  have  made 
him  more  friendly  to  the  Quakers,  if  not  one  of  them.  It 
is  so  interesting  that  I  give  it  in  the  words  of  George  Fox, 
taken  from  his  Journal : 

"I  said  little  in  reply  to  Captain  Drury.  But  the  next 
morning  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  write  a  paper  'To  the 
Protector,  by  the  name  of  Oliver  Cromwell;  wherein  I  did 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lord  declare,  that  I  did  deny  the 
wearing  or  drawing  of  a  carnal  sword,  or  any  other  out- 
ward weapon,  against  him  or  any  man.  And  that  I 
was  sent  of  God  to  stand  a  witness  against  all  violence, 
and  against  the  works  of  darkness;  and  to  turn  people 
from  darkness  to  light;  to  bring  them  from  the  occasion 
of  war  and  fighting  to  the  peaceable  gospel;  and  from 
being  evil-doers,  which  the  magistrate's  sword  should  be 
a  terror  to.'  When  I  had  written  what  the  Lord  had 
given  me  to  write,  I  set  my  name  to  it,  and  gave  it  to 
Captain  Drury  to  hand  to  O.  Cromwell;  which  he  did. 
After  some  time  Captain  Drury  brought  me  before  the 
Protector  himself  at  Whitehall.  It  was  in  the  morning 
before  he  was  dressed;  and  one  Harvey,  who  had  come  a 
little  among  Friends,  but  was  disobedient,  waited  upon 


104 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


him.  When  I  came  in,  I  was  moved  to  say,  Teace 
be  in  this  house;'  and  I  exhorted  him  to  keep  in  the  fear 
of  God,  that  he  might  receive  wisdom  from  him;  that  by  it 
he  might  be  ordered,  and  with  it  might  order  all  things 
under  his  hand  to  God's  glory.  1  spoke  much  to  him  of 
truth;  and  a  great  deal  of  discourse  I  had  with  him  about 
religion :  wherein  he  carried  himself  very  moderately.  But 
he  said.  We  quarreled  with  the  priests,  whom  he  called 
ministers.  I  told  him,  'I  did  not  quarrel  with  them,  they 
quarreled  with  me  and  my  friends.  But,'  said  I,  'if  we  own 
the  prophets,  Christ  and  the  apostles,  we  cannot  hold  up 
such  teachers,  prophets,  and  shepherds  as  the  prophets^ 
Christ,  and  the  apostles  declared  against;  but  we  must  de- 
clare against  them  by  the  same  power  and  Spirit.'  Then  I 
shewed  him  that  the  prophets,  Christ,  and  the  apostles  de- 
clared freely,  and  declared  against  them  that  did  not  declare 
freely  such  as  preached  for  filthy  lucre,  divined  for  money, 
and  preached  for  hire,  and  were  covetous  and  greedy,  like 
the  dumb  dogs  that  could  never  have  enough;  and  that 
they,  who  have  the  same  Spirit  as  Christ  and  the  prophets, 
and  the  apostles  had,  could  not  but  declare  against  all  such 
now,  as  they  did  then.  As  I  spoke,  he  several  times  said, 
"It  was  very  good  and  it  was  truth."  I  told  him  'That  all 
Christendom  (so  called)  had  the  scriptures,  but  they  wanted 
the  power  and  Spirit  that  those  had  who  gave  forth  the 
scriptures ;  and  that  was  the  reason  they  were  not  in  fellow- 
ship with  the  Son,  nor  with  the  Father,  nor  with  the  scrip- 
tures, nor  one  with  another.'  Many  more  words  I  had  with 
him;  but  people  coming  in,  I  drew  a  little  back.  As  I  was 
turning,  he  catched  me  by  the  hand,  and  with  tears  in  his 
eyes  said,  'Come  again  to  my  house;  for  if  thou  and  I  were 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


105 


but  an  hour  of  a  day  together^  we  should  he  nearer  one  to 
the  other f  adding,  That  he  wished  me  no  more  ill  than  he 
did  to  his  own  soul.  1  told  him,  'If  he  did,  he  wronged 
his  own  soul;  and  admonished  him  to  hearken  to  God's 
voice,  that  he  might  stand  in  his  counsel  and  obey  it;  and 
if  he  did  so,  that  would  keep  him  from  hardness  of  heart; 
but  if  he  did  not  hear  God's  voice,  his  heart  v/ould  be 
hardened.'  He  said,  it  was  true.  Then  I  went  out;  and 
when  Captain  Drury  came  out  after  me,  he  told  me.  His 
lord.  Protector  said  I  was  at  liberty,  and  might  go  whither 
I  would.  Then  I  was  brought  into  a  great  hall,  where  the 
Protector's  gentlemen  were  to  dine.  I  asked  them,  what 
they  brought  me  thither  for*?  They  said,  it  was  by  the 
Protector's  order,  that  I  might  dine  with  them.  I  bid  them 
let  the  Protector  know,  I  would  not  eat  of  his  bread,  nor 
drink  of  his  drink.  When  he  heard  this,  he  said,  'Now  I 
see  there  is  a  people  risen^  that  I  cannot  win  either  with 
gifts ^  honours^  offices^  or  places;  hut  all  other  sects  and  peo* 
ple^  I  can." 

I  might  add  here  a  comparison  between  the  men  who 
looked  into  each  other's  eyes,  who  were  really  great  generals 
in  two  distinct  fields.  Both  fought  the  battle  of  the  Lord : 
one  with  the  best-equipped  army  on  earth,  armed  with  the 
most  complete  implements  of  war  known;  the  other,  a  gen- 
eral of  potential  worth  and  skill ;  a  fighter  who  never  knew 
when  he  was  conquered,  and  who  fought  his  battles  with 
prayer,  passive  resistance  and  tireless  energy. 

Fox  was  a  tall,  striking  figure,  with  sparkling  prominent 
eyes.  He  wore  his  hair  long,  though  not  in  pride.  His 
hat  was  a  low-crowned  one,  and  his  coat  was  devoid  of  but- 
tons, or  ornament  of  any  kind.   It  was,  in  fact,  the  costume 


io6  THE  PROTECTORATE 


of  Charles  the  First,  without  its  decorations,  and  if  Fox 
had  tipped  up  the  brim  of  his  hat,  given  it  a  rakish,  modish 
curve,  thrust  a  splendid  ostrich  plume  through  the  band  that 
would  have  fallen  down  over  his  shoulder,  curled  and  per- 
fumed his  long  hair,  had  his  coat  made  of  satin,  instead  of 
homespun,  and  worn  a  sword,  he  would  have  been  a  copy 
of  Charles  the  First.  The  king  wore  lace  at  his  throat.  Fox 
a  plain  white  linen  band.  Fox  wore  breeches  of  leather  and 
jerkins,  knee  breeches,  coarse  stockings  and  low  shoes.  He 
bore  in  his  hand  a  staff  or  cane  about  four  feet  in  length 
with  a  large  ivory  head. 

As  he  met  Cromwell,  Fox  retained  his  hat,  and  the  Pro- 
tector, understanding  that  it  was  a  part  of  his  religion, 
like  his  buttonless  coat,  did  not  object.  He,  too,  was  sub- 
dued and  quiet,  in  his  dress,  despite  the  fact  that  he  was 
the  first  gentleman  of  England,  an  uncrowned  King.  He 
looked  much  like  a  Quaker;  wore  his  hair  long  behind  and 
a  small  moustache.  His  coat  was  of  black  cloth;  he  wore 
long  boots,  trunk  hose,  a  hat  of  a  gray  color,  stockings  of 
gray  coarse  worsted.  In  many  respects  the  two  men,  who 
glanced  at  each  other  with  inquiring  eyes,  were  garbed  alike. 

That  the  personality  of  Fox  was  extremely  striking  is 
shown  in  his  short  and  not  altogether  pleasant  acquaintance 
with  Captain  Drury.  The  latter,  a  thoughtless,  joking  fel- 
low, taunted  Fox  in  a  good  natured  manner,  and  called  him 
a  "Quaker."  Fox  rebuked  him,  with  reason,  and  so  touched 
the  conscience  of  the  soldier  that  Drury  came  to  him  later 
and  apologized,  saying  that  he  had  cast  the  last  derisive 
word  at  him  or  the  Friends  he  represented. 

That  Fox  resented  the  term  "Quaker"  on  all  occasions 
is  well  shown  in  the  following  extract  from  his  Journal, 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


in  which  he  also  refers  to  those  who  came  to  hear  him  out 
of  curiosity,  expecting  to  see  the  Quaker  ''quake" :  "Mind 
the  light  in  your  consciences,  ye  scoffers  and  scorners,  which 
Christ  hath  enlightened  you  withal;  that  with  it,  ye  may 
see  yourselves,  but  ye  act,  and  what  ye  have  acted ;  for  who 
acts  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God:  all 
such  things  are  by  the  Light  condemned. 

"You  who  come  to  witness  'trembling'  and  'quaking,' 
the  powers  of  the  earth  to  be  shaken,  the  lustful  nature 
to  be  destroyed,  the  scorning  and  scoffing  nature,  judged  by 
the  light;  in  it  wait  to  receive  power  from  him  who  shakes 
the  earth.  That  power  we  own,  and  our  faith  stands  in  it, 
who  were  painted  sepulchres  and  serpents;  and  as  the  Scribes 
which  all  the  world  scoffs  at;  the  lofty,  the  proud,  the  pre- 
sumptous,  who  live  in  presumption  and  yet  make  a  pro- 
fession of  the  scriptures,  as  your  fathers  the  Pharisees  did, 
who  had  the  chiefest  places  in  the  assemblys,  stood 
praying  in  the  synagogues,  and  are  called  of  men  Masters, 
whom  Christ  called  Wo  against.  These  are  not  come  so 
far  as  the  trembling  of  devils,  who  believed  and  trembled. 
Let  that  judge  you.  The  light  and  life  of  the  scripture  is 
seen  and  made  manif'^st,  and  with  it  all  you  scorners,  per- 
secuters,  and  railers  are  seen. 

Take  warning,  all  ye  powers  of  the  earth,  how  ye  per- 
secute them  whom  the  world  nicknames  and  calls  Quakers, 
who  dwell  in  the  eternal  power  of  God;  lest  the  hand  of 
the  Lord  be  turned  against  you,  and  ye  be  all  cut  off.  To 
you,  this  is  the  Word  of  God,  fear  and  tremble,  and  take 
warning;  for  this  is  the  man  whom  the  Lord  doth  regard, 
who  trembles  at  his  Word;  which  you,  who  are  of  the 
world,  scorn,  stock,  persecute,  and  imprison.    Here  ye  may 


io8  THE  PROTECTORATE 


see  ye  are  contrary  to  God,  contrary  to  the  prophets;  and 
are  such  as  hate  what  the  Lord  regards,  which  we,  whom 
the  world  scorns,  and  calls  Quakers,  own.  We  exalt  and 
honour  that  power  which  makes  the  devil  tremble,  shakes 
the  earth,  throws  down  the  loftiness  of  man,  the  haughti- 
ness of  man,  and  makes  the  beasts  of  the  field  to  tremble, 
and  causes  the  earth  to  reel  to  and  fro,  cleaves  it  asunder, 
and  overturneth  the  world.  This  power  we  own,  honour, 
and  preach  up,  whom  the  world  scornfully  calls  Quakers. 
But  all  persecutors,  railers,  and  scorners,  stockers  and 
whippers,  we  deny  by  that  power  which  throweth  down 
all  that  nature;  as  seeing  that  all  who  act  such  things, 
without  repentance,  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God, 
but  are  for  destruction." 

In  April,  1655,  following  the  Royalist  insurrection,  a 
proclamation  was  issued,  called  the  Oath  of  Abjuration. 
It  was  aimed  at  the  Quakers  who  were  supposed  to  be 
Jesuits  in  disguise.  They  were  required  to  take  an  oath 
abjuring  papal  authority,  and  the  doctrine  of  trans-substan- 
tiation. Nothing  could  be  more  absurd,  yet  it  was  excellent 
material,  a  sort  of  "mental  stocks"  for  the  Quakers,  as  the 
framers  knew  their  victims  could  not  or  would  not  swear 
or  take  oath;  hence  numbers  were  sent  to  jail,  notably  Am- 
brose Rigge,  Thomas  Robertson,  Miles  Halhead  and 
Thomas  Salthouse. 

George  Fox  made  an  attempt  to  see  Cromwell,  to  obtain 
its  revocation,  but  found  that  his  views  had  changed.  The 
Protector  had  many  troubles.  The  government  was  now 
conducted  by  an  "Instrument"  of  Government,  which  con- 
fided the  executive  power  to  the  Protector.  The  Legisla- 
tive power  was  in  the  hands  of  Parliament,  and  the  latter 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


109 


had  the  power  to  pass  a  bill  over  Cromwell's  veto.  The 
Protector  apparently  did  what  he  could  to  provide  religious 
liberty.  He  appointed  commissioners  to  watch  ministers, 
and  ostensibly  he  allowed  them,  Presbyterians,  Congrega- 
tionalists,  Baptists,  Dissenters,  to  form  churches  or  con- 
gregations along  their  own  lines.  Had  the  Quakers  not 
been  so  aggressive,  had  they  used  tact  and  diplomacy,  they 
would  have  been  spared  much  suffering,  but  doubtless, 
would  not  have  made  much  headway. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 

In  attempting  to  understand  why  the  Quakers  received 
such  brutal  treatment  under  Cromwell,  when  he  was  at 
times  so  friendly  with  their  leaders,  it  is  necessary  to  not 
only  keep  in  mind  constantly  the  political  history  of  Eng- 
land during  this  period;  but  to  understand  the  trials  and 
tribulations  of  Cromwell  himself,  who  was  enacting  one  of 
the  most  difficult  roles  in  history,  the  leader  of  a  great  nation 
groping  for  light. 

Cromwell  was  the  first  of  the  moderns  of  English  his- 
tory, a  statesman,  politician,  general,  preacher,  the  first  of 
his  class  to  seriously  attempt  to  give  the  English  a  system 
of  government  approximating  that  which  is  enjoyed  in 
America  to-day.  He  was  opposed  by  the  old  parties,  held 
down  by  his  own  followers,  cursed  by  bigots,  deceived  by 
pseudo  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Quakers.  That  he 
could  not  satisfy  all  was  evident,  and  to  attempt  it  was 
apparently  futile.  The  result  of  the  seeming  failure  of  his 
plans  to  suit  so  many  sects  and  parties,  began  to  have  its 
effect  on  the  Protector.  He  became  sullen  to  friend  and 
foe,  gave  way  to  fierce  bursts  of  rage,  and  openly  displayed 
his  contempt  for  the  men  he  had  to  deal  with;  and  after 
what  was  doubtless  a  true  and  conscientious  attempt  to 
solve  the  situation,  he  dissolved  Parliament  in  1655,  and 
again  England  was  involved  in  political  chaos,  and  hun- 
dreds of  Quakers  were  thrown  into  jail  all  over  the  land 
on  the  slightest  excuse. 

r 

\ 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


111 


Christopher  Holder,  now  known  as  a  preacher,  was 
thrown  into  jail  at  Ilchester  for  refusing  to  take  off  his 
hat.  Many  of  his  fellows  were  also  committed,  and  their 
friends  demanded  their  release.  It  was  an  unpropitious 
time  to  write  Cromwell  a  letter,  but  George  Fox  stood  not 
on  the  order  of  going;  he  knew  that  his  enemies  had  been 
maligning  the  Quakers,  hence  he  wrote  the  following  and 
sent  it  to  the  Protector: 

"The  magistrate  is  not  to  bear  the  sword  in  vain,  who 
ought  to  be  a  terror  to  the  evil  doers;  but  the  magistrate 
that  bears  the  sword  in  vain,  as  he  is  not  a  terror  to  evil 
doers,  so  he  is  not  a  praise  to  them  that  do  well.  Now  hath 
God  raised  up  a  people  by  his  power,  whom  people,  priests 
and  magistrates,  out  of  the  fear  of  God,  scornfully  call 
Quakers,  who  cry  against  drunkeness,  (for  drunkards  de- 
stroy God's  creatures)  and  cry  against  oaths  (for  because 
of  oaths  the  land  mourns)  and  these  drunkards  and  swear- 
ers, to  whom  the  magistrate's  sword  should  be  a  terror,  are, 
we  see,  at  liberty;  but  for  crying  against  such,  many  are 
cast  into  prison,  and  for  crying  against  their  pride  and 
filthiness,  their  deceitful  merchandise  in  markets,  their 
cozening,  their  cheating,  their  excess  and  naughtiness,  their 
playing  at  bowls  and  shovel-boards,  at  cards  and  at  dice, 
and  their  other  vain  and  wanton  pleasures.  Who  live  in 
pleasures  are  dead  while  they  live,  and  who  live  in  want- 
oness,  kill  the  just.  This  we  know  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
which  gave  forth  the  scriptures,  which  God  the  Father  hath 
given  to  us,  and  hath  placed  his  righteous  law  in  our  hearts; 
which  law  is  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  and  answers  that  which 
is  of  God  in  every  man's  conscience.  They  who  act  con- 
trary to  the  measure  of  God's  Spirit  in  every  man's  con- 


1 1 2      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


science,  cast  the  law  of  God  behind  their  backs,  and  walk 
despitefully  against  the  Spirit  of  Grace.  The  magistrate's 
sword,  we  see,  is  borne  in  vain,  whilst  evil  doers  are  at 
liberty  to  do  evil,  and  they  that  cry  against  such  are,  for  so 
doing,  punished  by  the  magistrate,  who  hath  turned  his 
sword  backward  against  the  Lord.  Now  the  wicked  one 
fenceth  himself,  and  persecutes  the  innocent,  and  vaga- 
bonds and  wanderers,  for  crying  against  sin,  unrighteous- 
ness, and  ungodliness  openly,  in  the  markets  and  in  the 
highways;  or  as  railers,  because  they  tell  them  what  judg- 
ment will  come  upon  those  that  follow  such  practices. 
Here  they  that  depart  from  iniquity  are  become  a  prey, 
and  few  lay  it  to  heart.  But  God  will  thresh  the  moun- 
tains, beat  the  hills,  cleave  the  rocks,  and  cast  into  his  press 
which  is  trodden  without  the  city,  and  will  bathe  his  sword 
in  the  blood  of  the  wicked  and  unrighteous.  You  that  have 
drunk  the  cup  of  abominations,  an  hard  cup  have  you  to 
drink,  you  who  are  the  enemies  of  God,  of  you  he  will  be 
avenged.  You  in  whom  something  of  God  is  remaining, 
consider:  If  the  sword  was  not  borne  in  vain,  but  turned 
against  evil  doers,  the  righteous  would  not  suffer,  and  be 
cast  into  holes,  dungeons,  corners,  prisons,  and  houses  of 
correction,  as  peace-breakers,  for  crying  against  sin  opening, 
as  they  are  commanded  of  the  Lord,  and  for  crying  against 
the  covetousness  of  the  priests  and  their  false  worship;  to 
exact  money  of  poor  people,  whom  they  do  no  work  for. 
Oh!  where  will  you  appear  in  the  day  of  the  Lord?  How 
will  you  stand  in  the  day  of  his  righteous  judgment?  How 
many  goals  and  houses  of  correction  are  now  made  places 
to  put  the  Lambs  of  Christ  in,  for  following  him  and  obey- 
ing his  commands!    The  royal  law  of  Christ,  "To  do  as 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 1 3 


ye  would  be  done  by,"  is  trodden  down  under  foot;  so  that 
men  can  profess  him  in  words,  but  crucify  him  wheresoever 
he  appears,  and  cast  him  into  prison,  as  the  talkers  of  him 
always  did  in  generations  and  ages  past.  The  laborours, 
which  God  the  Master  of  the  Harvest,  hath  sent  into  his 
Vineyard,  do  the  chief  of  the  priests  and  the  rulers  now 
take  counsel  together  against  to  cast  them  into  prison;  here 
are  the  fruits  of  priests,  people  and  rulers,  without  the  fear 
of  God.  The  day  is  come  and  coming  that  every  man's 
work  doth  and  shall  appear;  glory  be  to  the  Lord  God  for- 
ever! See  and  consider  the  days  you  have  spent,  and  the 
days  you  do  spend,  for  this  is  your  day  of  visitation.  Many 
have  suffered  great  fines,  because  they  could  not  swear,  but 
abide  in  Christ's  doctrine,  who  saith.  Swear  not  at  all;  and 
by  that  means  are  they  made  a  prey  upon  for  abiding  in 
the  command  of  Christ.  Many  are  cast  into  prison  and 
made  a  prey  upon,  because  they  cannot  take  the  oath  of 
abjuration,  tho  they  denied  all  that  is  abjured  in  it;  and  by 
that  means  many  of  the  messengers  and  ministers  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  cast  into  prison,  because  they  will 
not  swear  nor  go  out  of  Christ's  command.  Therefore,  O 
man,  consider;  to  the  measure  of  the  life  of  God  in  thee 
I  speak.  Many  also  lie  of  goals,  because  they  cannot  pay 
the  priests  tythes;  many  have  their  goods  spoiled,  and 
treble  damages  taken  of  them ;  many  are  whipped  and  beaten 
in  the  houses  of  correction,  who  have  broken  no  law.  These 
things  are  done  in  thy  name,  in  order  to  protect  them  in 
these  actions.  If  men  fearing  God  bore  the  sword,  and 
covetousness  was  hated,  and  men  of  courage  for  God  were 
sent  up,  then  they  would  be  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  and  a 
praise  to  them  that  do  well;  and  not  cause  such  to  suffer. 
8 


1 14      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


Here  many  would  be  heard  in  our  land,  and  righteousness 
would  stand  up  and  take  place;  which  giveth  not  place  to 
the  righteousness,  but  judgeth  it.  To  the  measure  of  God's 
Spirit  in  thee  I  speak,  that  thou  mayest  consider  and  rule 
for  God:  that  thou  mayest  answer  that  which  is  of  God  in 
every  man's  conscience;  for  that  is  it  which  bringeth  to 
honour  all  men  in  the  Lord.  Therefore,  consider  for  whom 
thou  rulest,  that  thou  mayest  come  to  receive  power  from 
God  to  rule  for  him;  and  all  that  is  contrary  to  God  may 
by  his  light  be  condemned. 

From  a  lover  of  thy  soul,  who  desires  thy  eternal 
good.  G.  F." 

Cromwell  paid  no  attention  to  the  complaint.  He  was 
sullen,  suspicious,  and  disgusted.  To  a  friend  of  the 
Quakers,  he  said  in  keen  and  subtle  sarcasm,  "Each  sect 
saith,  O,  give  me  liberty,  but  give  it  and  to  spare;  he  will 
not  yield  to  anyone  else.  Liberty  of  conscience  is  a  natural 
rights  and  he  that  would  have  it,  ought  to  give  it.  I  desire 
from  my  heart.  I  have  prayed  for  it,  I  have  watched  for 
the  day  to  see  union  and  right  understanding  between  the 
godly  people,  Scots,  English,  Jews,  Gentiles,  Presbyterians, 
Independents,  and  nobles  and  all." 

The  situation  was  more  than  pathetic.  Cromwell  was 
not  perfect,  but  unquestionably  he  was  the  greatest  political 
reformer  England  had  seen.  He,  doubtless,  was  deeply 
and  pathetically  disappointed  that  he  had  not  succeeded. 
Cromwell  had  experimented  with  various  methods,  but  his 
views  and  ideas  were  doubtless  too  advanced  for  the  masses ; 
he  was  attempting  the  impossible. 

The  continual  warring  between  sects,  violent  and  un- 
reasonable, wore  on  Cromwell's  patience.    When  Mazarin, 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 15 


the  cardinal  of  the  French,  replied  to  his  demand  for  better 
treatment  of  the  Vaudois  by  asking  good  treatment  for 
English  Catholics,  the  disgusted  Protector  replied  that  he 
could  do  no  more,  which  meant  that  he  would  not.  If 
Cromwell  stood  for  anything  in  England,  it  was  for  re- 
ligious toleration,  but  every  sect  was  disappointed;  some 
were  ugly  and  vindictive,  others  nagging,  others  again  per- 
sistent to  the  limit  of  patience.  It  is  little  wonder  that 
the  great  Protector  began  to  steel  his  heart  against  them. 
He  was  a  true  reformer,  the  greatest  political  protagonist 
for  morality  that  England  had  produced ;  but  to  satisfy  the 
scores  of  sects,  to  subdue  the  Royalists  and  Papists,  to  stem 
the  revolts,  to  avoid  assassinations  at  the  hands  of  fanatics, 
doubtless  wore  upon  him.  As  a  consequence,  the  Friends 
or  Quakers  suffered  with  the  rest,  and  in  1655-6  over  one 
thousand  were  in  jail;  many  being  horribly  treated,  and  a 
certain  percentage  died  from  the  effects  of  years  or  months 
in  dungeons. 

When  the  conditions  of  life  in  England  at  this  time  are 
realized,  there  is  little  wonder  that  the  Quakers  were  ter- 
rorized, and  that  Cromwell  was  unable  to  protect  them. 
The  masses  were  still  steeped  in  ignorance.  There  was  an 
appalling  illiteracy,  despite  the  advancement  in  the  arts, 
and  there  was  a  sordid,  brutal  side,  the  remnant  of  savagery, 
just  as  there  is  to-day  in  a  lesser  degree  in  every  community, 
in  every  land. 

Every  point  made  by  Fox  and  his  preachers  was  a  blow 
in  the  face  to  the  church  of  England,  to  Catholicism.  I 
have  watched  women  charging  the  House  of  Parliament,  in 
London,  fighting  like  men  for  the  rights  of  suffrage;  this  in 
1910.    How  much  more  amazing  and  shocking  was  it  in 


1 1 6      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


1655  to  have  the  claim  made  for  equal  rights  and  to  see 
that  scandalous  outrage,  a  woman  like  Margaret  Fell, 
preaching,  heading  a  propoganda  for  religious  liberty,  anti- 
slavery,  and  everything  else  that  was  not  believed  in,  or 
had  never  been  thought  of  by  the  majority  of  the  un- 
awakened  masses  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Little  won- 
der that  the  Royalists,  the  Papists,  the  Ranters,  the  uncon- 
trollable masses  everywhere  were  aroused.  No  wonder 
they  thought  the  Reformers  and  Progressives  mad  and 
charged  them  with  all  the  crimes  on  the  calendar,  as  no  one 
but  a  mad  man  or  woman  would  contend  for  what  they  did 
in  1655.  Here,  briefly,  is  what  the  Quakers  were  demand- 
ing: 

1.  Religious  liberty. 

2.  Equal  rights  of  women. 

3.  Prohibition. 

4.  The  Simple  Life. 

5.  Reforms.    The  example  of  Christ. 

6.  Abatement  of  War. 

7.  Arbitration  in  all  conflicts,  based  on  instruction  in 
the  Bible. 

8.  Purity  of  Life. 

9.  Abolishment  of  crime,  prize  fights  and  fighting  and 
all  lewd  sports. 

10.  Abolishment  of  tythes  or  taxes  to  support  the 
church. 

11.  Abolishment  of  paid  ministry. 

12.  In  favor  of  civil  marriages. 

13.  The  right  to  affirm,  instead  of  the  use  of  oaths 
prohibited  by  the  Bible. 

14.  Against  imprisonment  for  debt. 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 1 7 


15.  Prison  reform  and  moral  aid  to  prisoners. 

16.  Rejection  of  rites  of  the  Church,  as  baptism,  etc., 
on  the  ground  that  a  spiritual  understanding  was  the  in- 
tention. 

17.  Against  human  slavery. 

18.  The  rights  of  the  poor,  ignorant  and  savages. 

19.  Against  extreme  luxuries  and  display  in  living. 

20.  Against  bowing  down  to  anyone  who  was  really  a 
servant  of  the  people,  kings,  emperors,  judges,  popes,  and 
all  officers. 

21.  That  God  communicated  personally  to  every  man, 
woman  and  child. 

22.  Religious  toleration. 

23.  Equal  rights  to  Jews. 

All  these  reforms  are  the  active  questions  in  England  and 
America  to-day,  but  the  Quakers  began  the  fight  for  them 
two  hundred  and  sixty-four  years  ago. 

Despite  the  increasing  reserve  of  Cromwell  and  his 
changed  attitude  to  the  Quakers,  the  leaders,  many  of  whom 
were  men  of  influence,  and  some  his  old  soldiers,  did  not 
fail  to  importune  him  to  give  them  real  religious  toleration. 
As  we  have  seen,  in  July,  1655,  Cromwell  dismissed  the 
first  Protectorate  Parliament.  His  troubles  were  increasing; 
the  love  of  power  was  possibly  growing  in  the  heart  of  the 
great  Commoner.  He  had  allowed  no  member  to  enter  the 
Parliament  who  would  not  sign  a  document  not  to  change 
the  government,  as  he  had  tried  to  force  George  Fox  to 
sign;  not  to  preach  against  the  government. 

One  hundred  members  of  Parliament  refused  to  bind 
themselves  and  became  his  enemies.  Among  others,  the 
Quakers  protested  that  this  was  not  liberty,  that  freedom. 


1 1 8      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


toleration  was  being  strangled  in  its  birth.  Whatever  he 
may  have  thought  or  intended,  Cromwell  made  himself 
practically  a  Dictator  when  he  dissolved  Parliament  and 
the  shadow  of  Charles  the  Second  loomed  dark  on  the  polit- 
ical horizon.  That  he  had  experimented  with  every  possi- 
ble condition  of  government  appears  to  be  true.  He  had 
tried  a  purely  religious  rule;  he  then  established  a  govern- 
ment of  major  generals  in  which  the  country  was  divided 
into  districts,  with  a  major  general  as  the  governor  of  each. 
He  had  also  tested  government  by  the  representation  of  the 
people.  All  seemed  to  be  unsatisfactory  and  the  looker-on 
can  well  imagine  that  he  must  have  thought  seriously  of  a 
kingdom  and  a  House  of  Cromwell.  Whether  he  did  or 
not,  the  Quakers  suspected  it  and  at  once  protested  in  a 
letter  prepared  by  Edward  Burrough : 

QUAKER  WARNING  TO  CROMWELL 

"I  as  one  that  had  obtained  mercy  from  the  Lord,  and 
unto  whom  his  word  is  committed,  being  moved  of  him, 
do  hereby  in  his  presence  yet  once  more  warn  thee,  that 
thou  fear  before  him,  and  diligently  hearken  to  him,  and 
seek  him  with  all  thy  heart,  that  thou  mayest  know  his 
will  and  counsel  concerning  thee,  and  mayest  do  it,  and 
find  favor  in  his  sight,  and  live.  Now  is  the  day  that  his 
hand  is  stretched  forth  unto  thee,  to  make  thee  a  blessing 
or  to  leave  thee  a  curse  forever;  and  the  days  of  thy  visita- 
tion are  near  an  end;  when  God  will  no  more  call  unto  thee, 
nor  hear  thee,  when  in  the  day  of  thy  trouble  thou  callest 
to  him.  And  if  thou  rejectest  the  counsel  of  the  Lord,  and 
followest  the  desires  of  thine  own  heart,  and  the  wills  of 
men,  and  wilt  not  have  the  light  of  the  world,  Christ  Jesus, 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 1 9 


only  to  rule  thee,  and  to  teach  thee,  which  condemns  all  evil, 
then  shall  evil  surely  fall  upon  thee,  if  thou  lovest  not  the 
light  in  thee  which  condemns  it;  and  the  judgments  of 
God,  nor  the  day  of  his  last  visitation  with  vengeance, 
thou  mayest  not  escape.  Therefore  consider  and  mark  my 
words,  and  let  this  counsel  be  acceptable  unto  thee;  let  it 
move  thee  to  meekness,  to  humbleness,  and  to  fear  before 
the  Lord;  assuredly  knowing  that  it  is  he  that  changeth 
times  and  things,  and  that  bringeth  down  and  setteth  up 
whomsoever  he  will;  and  how  that  thou  wast  raised  from 
a  low  estate  and  set  over  all  thine  enemies.  And  in  that 
day  when  thou  wast  raised  up,  when  the  fear  of  the  Lord 
was  before  thy  face,  and  thy  heart  was  towards  him,  and 
thou  was  but  little  in  thine  own  eyes,  then  it  was  well  with 
thee,  and  the  Lord  blessed  thee.  And  it  was  not  once 
thought  concerning  thee,  that  the  hands  of  the  ungodly 
would  have  been  strengthened  against  the  righteous  under 
thee,  or  that  such  grievous  burdens  and  oppressions  would 
ever  have  been  paid  upon  the  just,  and  acted  against  them 
in  thy  name,  and  under  thy  dominion,  as  unrighteously  have 
come  to  pass  in  these  three  years;  and  this  thy  suffering  of 
such  things  is  thy  transgression,  and  thou  hast  not  requited 
the  Lord  well  for  his  goodness  unto  thee,  nor  fulfilled  his 
will  in  suffering  that  to  be  done  unto  thee,  and  in  thy  name, 
which  the  Lord  raised  thee  against,  and  to  break  down, 
hadst  thou  been  faithful  to  the  end. 

Again,  consider,  and  let  it  move  on  thy  heart,  not  to  exalt 
thyself,  nor  to  be  high-minded,  but  to  fear  continually, 
knowing  that  thou  standest  not  by  thyself,  but  by  another, 
and  that  he  is  able  to  abase  thee  into  the  will  of  thine 
enemies  whensoever  he  will;  and  how  the  Lord  hath  pre- 


1 20      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


served  thee  sometimes  wonderfully,  and  doth  unto  this  day, 
from  the  murderous  plots,  and  crafty  policy  of  evil  men, 
who  seek  thy  evil,  and  would  rejoice  in  thy  fall,  and  in  the 
desolation  of  thy  family  and  countries;  how  have  they,  and 
do  they  lay  snares  for  thy  feet,  that  thou  mayest  be  cut 
off  from  amongst  men,  and  die  unhappily  and  be  counted 
accursed?  And  yet  to  this  day  he  hath  preserved  thee,  and 
been  near  to  keep  thee,  though  thou  hast  hardly  known  it; 
and  the  Lord's  end  is  love  to  thee  in  all  these  things,  and 
yet  a  little  longer  to  try  thee,  that  thou  mayest  give  him 
the  glory. 

O,  that  thy  heart  were  opened  to  see  his  hand,  that  thou 
mightest  live  unto  him  and  die  in  peace.  And  beware  lest 
hardness  of  heart  possess  thee,  if  thou  slight  his  love,  and 
so  be  shut  up  in  darkness,  and  given  to  the  desires  of  thine 
enemies,  and  left  to  the  counsels  of  treacherous  men,  who 
may  seek  to  exalt  thee  by  flattery  that  they  may  the  better 
cast  thee  down,  and  destroy  thee,  and  blot  out  thy  name  in 
reproach,  and  make  thy  posterity  a  people  miserable.  But 
now,  O  consider,  and  let  it  enter  into  thy  heart,  for  thou 
hast  not  answered  the  Lord,  but  been  wanting  to  him,  for 
all  this,  and  hast  chosen  thy  own  way  and  glory,  rather 
than  his,  and  not  fulfilled  his  counsel  in  raising  thee;  for 
the  bonds  of  cruelty  are  not  loosed  by  thee,  and  the  op- 
pressed are  not  altogether  set  free;  neither  is  oppression 
taken  off  from  the  back  of  the  poor,  nor  the  laws  regulated, 
nor  the  liberty  of  pure  conscience  altogether  allowed;  but 
these  dominions  are  filled  with  cruel  oppressions,  and  the 
poor  groan  everywhere  under  the  heavy  hand  of  injustice; 
the  needy  are  trodden  down  under  foot,  and  the  oppressed 
cry  for  deliverance,  and  are  ready  to  faint  for  true  justice 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  121 


and  judgment.  Ihe  proud  exalt  themselves  against  the 
poor,  and  the  high-minded  and  rebellious  contemn  the  meek 
of  the  earth;  the  horn  of  the  ungodly  is  exalted  above  the 
Lord's  heritage,  and  they  that  are  departed  from  iniquity, 
are  become  a  prey  to  oppressors;  and  the  cruel  hearted  deal 
cruelly  with  the  innocent  in  these  nations.  Many  are  un- 
justly and  woefully  sufferers,  because  they  cannot  swear  on 
this  or  that  occasion;  though  in  all  cases  they  speak  the 
truth,  and  do  obey  Christ's  commands;  even  such  are  trod- 
den upon  by  unjust  fines  charged  upon  them;  and  this  is 
by  the  corruptness  of  some  that  bear  rule  under  thee,  who 
rule  not  for  God  as  they  ought,  but  turn  the  sword  of  jus- 
tice. Some  suffer  long  and  tedious  imprisonments,  and 
others  cruel  stripes  and  abuses,  and  danger  of  life  many 
times,  from  wicked  men,  for  reproving  sin,  and  crying 
against  the  abominations  of  the  times,  (which  the  Scriptures 
also  testify  against,)  in  streets  or  other  places:  some  having 
been  sent  to  prison,  taken  on  the  highway  and  no  evil 
charged  against  them;  and  others  committed,  being  taken 
out  of  peaceable  meetings,  and  whipped,  and  sent  to  prison, 
without  transgression  of  any  law,  just  or  unjust,  wholly 
through  envy  and  rage  of  the  devil,  and  such  who  have 
perverted  judgment  and  justice;  and  some  in  prisons  have 
suifered  superabundantly  from  the  hands  of  the  cruel  jailers 
and  their  servants,  by  beatings  and  threatenings,  and  put- 
ting irons  on  them,  and  not  suffering  any  of  their  friends  to 
visit  them  with  necessaries;  and  some  have  died  in  the 
prisons,  whose  lives  were  not  dear  to  them,  whose  blood 
will  be  reckoned  on  account  against  thee  one  day.  Some 
have  suffered  hard  cruelties,  because  they  could  not  respect 
persons,  and  bow  with  hat  or  knee;  and  from  these  cruelties 


122      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 

canst  thou  not  altogether  be  excused  in  the  sight  of  God, 
being  brought  forth  in  thy  name,  and  under  thy  power. 
Consider,  friend,  and  be  awakened  to  true  judgment;  let 
the  Lord  search  thy  heart;  and  lay  these  things  to  mind 
that  thou  mayest  be  an  instrument  to  remove  every  burden, 
and  mayest  at  last  fulfill  the  will  of  God.  O,  be  awakened, 
be  awakened,  and  seek  the  Lord's  glory,  and  not  thy  own, 
lest  thou  perish  before  the  Lord  and  men :  nay,  if  men  would 
give  thee  honour,  and  high  titles,  and  princely  thrones,  take 
them  not;  for  that  which  will  exalt  and  honour  thee  in 
the  world,  would  betray  thee  to  the  world,  and  cast  thee 
down  in  the  sight  of  the  world;  and  this  is  God's  word  to 
thee:  What  I  vshall  the  whole  nation  be  purged  of  men  and 
thou  the  cause  of  it?  And  wilt  thou  transgress  by  build- 
ing again  that  which  thou  hast  destroyed?  Give  heed  unto 
my  words,  and  understand  my  speech:  be  not  exalted  by 
man  lest  man  betray  thee.  Deal  favorably,  and  relieve  the 
oppressed ;  boast  not  thyself,  though  the  Lord  hath  used  thee 
in  his  hands;  but  know  that  when  he  will,  he  can  cast  thee 
as  a  rod,  out  of  his  hand  into  the  fire;  for  in  his  hand  thou 
art.  If  thou  wilt  honour  him,  he  will  honour  thee;  other- 
wise he  can,  yea,  and  will  confound  thee,  and  break  and 
make  thee  weak  as  water  before  him.  His  love  through 
my  heart  breathes  unto  thee:  He  would  thy  happiness,  if 
thou  wilfully  contemn  it  not,  by  exalting  thyself,  and  seek- 
ing thy  own  glory,  and  hardening  th)^  heart  against  the 
cry  of  the  poor.  This  I  was  moved  in  bowels  of  pity  to 
lay  before  thee,  who  am  thy  friend,  not  in  flattery,  but  in 
an  upright  heart,  who  wishes  well  unto  thee  in  the  Lord. 

E.  Burrough." 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 23 


Burrough  repeatedly  wrote  to  the  Lord  Protector  and 
interviewed  him,  protesting  against  the  oppression  of  the 
Quakers,  but  with  little  or  no  result.  Cromwell  was  offered 
the  crown  of  England  by  his  Parliament,  and  doubtless 
might  have  accepted,  but  his  army  was  not  in  sympathy  with 
the  movement,  which  might  have  changed  the  history  of 
England ;  the  great  Commoner  saw  the  shadow  on  the  wall. 

If  the  charges  made  against  the  Quakers  are  analyzed  it 
will  be  found  that  at  this  time  they  were  often  punished 
for  pseudo  crimes  that  were  non-essentials.  The  Quakers 
were  nearly  three  centuries  ahead  of  their  time  in  demands 
for  reform,  yet  they  made  a  point  of  certain  things,  which 
from  a  modern  standpoint,  were  not  worthy  the  time  and 
thought  given  to  them.  One  was  their  refusal  to  swear. 
In  a  certain  sense,  they  confused  the  oath  required  by  courts 
and  various  legal  ceremonies  with  the  oath  used  as  a  male- 
diction. The  oath  in  a  court  is  merely  an  assurance,  an 
affirmative,  made  sacred,  an  assurance  that  the  testator  is 
telling  the  truth.  To  affirm  is  equally  offensive,  as  an 
affirmation  has  all  the  essentials  of  an  oath.  Hundreds  of 
Quakers  were  thrown  into  jail  because  they  refused  to  swear 
or  take  oath.  The  very  idea  of  an  oath  was  repellant,  and 
repugnant,  and  they  held  to  their  point  "swear  not  at  all" 
until  they  were  allowed  to  affirm,  and  affirm  they  do  to-day. 
They  also  wore  their  hats  as  a  protest  against  recognizing 
any  power  but  God. 

A  typical  scene  in  court  is  described  in  the  following 
from  the  Journal  of  George  Fox,  and  this  was  repeated 
scores  of  times  in  America  and  England.  Quakers  went  to 
loathsome  dungeons,  rather  than  remove  the  hat  or  take  an 
oath:    "When  we  were  brought  into  the  court,  we  stood 


1 24      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


a  pretty  while  with  our  hats  on,  and  always  quiet;  and  I 
was  moved  to  say,  'Peace  be  amongst  you/  Judge  Glyn, 
a  Welchman,  then  Chief  Justice  of  England,  said  to  the 
jailor,  'What  be  these  you  have  brought  here  into  the 
court?'  'Prisoners,  my  lord,'  said  he.  'Why  do  you  not 
put  off  your  hats?'  said  the  Judge  to  us.  'We  said  noth- 
ing. 'Put  off  your  hats.'  Still  we  said  nothing.  Then 
said  the  Judge,  'The  court  commands  you  to  put  off  your 
hats.'  Then  I  queried,  'Where  did  ever  any  magistrate, 
king,  or  judge,  from  Moses  to  Daniel,  command  any  to  put 
off  their  hats,  when  they  came  before  them  in  their  courts, 
either  amongst  the  Jews,  (the  people  of  God)  or  amongst 
the  heathen?  And  if  the  law  of  England  doth  command 
any  such  thing,  shew  me  that  law  either  written  or  printed.' 
The  judge  grew  very  angry,  and  said,  T  do  not  carry  my 
law-books  on  my  back.'  But  said  I,  'Tell  me  where  it  is 
printed  in  any  statute  book,  that  I  may  read  it.'  Then  said 
the  judge,  'Take  him  away,  prevaricator.'  So  they  took 
us  away  and  put  us  among  the  thieves.  Presently  after  he 
called  to  the  gaoler,  'Bring  them  up  again !  Come,'  said  he, 
'Where  had  they  hats  from  Moses  to  Daniel?  Come,  an- 
swer me,  I  have  you  fast  now.' 

"I  replied,  'Thou  mayest  read  in  the  Third  of  Daniel, 
that  the  three  children  were  cast  into  the  fiery  furnace  by 
Nebuchadnezzar's  command  with  their  coats,  their  hose, 
and  their  hats  on'  This  plain  instance  stopped  him;  so  that 
not  having  anything  else  to  the  point,  he  cried  again,  'Take 
them  away,  gaoler.'  Accordingly  we  were  taken  away, 
and  thrust  in  among  the  thieves;  where  we  were  kept  a 
great  while;  and  then  without  being  called,  the  sheriff's 
men  and  troopers  made  way  for  us  to  get  through  the 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL      1 25 


crowd,  and  guarded  us  to  prison  again,  a  multitude  of  peo- 
ple following  us,  with  whom  we  had  much  discourse  and 
reasoning  at  the  gaol." 

This  led  George  Fox  to  issue  a  paper  against  swearing 
and  his  reason.  It  is  as  follows:  "Take  heed  of  giving 
people  oaths  to  swear:  for  Christ  our  Lord  and  Master 
saith,  'Swear  not  at  all,  but  let  your  communication  be  yea, 
yea,  and  nay,  nay;  for  whatsoever  is  more  than  these  com- 
eth  of  evil.'  If  any  was  to  suffer  death,  it  must  be  by  the 
hand  of  two  or  three  witnesses;  and  the  hands  of  the  wit- 
nesses were  to  be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death.  The 
apostle  James  said,  'My  brethren  above  all  things,  swear 
not,  neither  by  heaven,  nor  by  earth,  nor  by  any  other  oath, 
lest  ye  fall  into  condemnation.'  Hence  ye  may  see  those 
that  swear  fall  into  condemnation,  and  are  out  of  Christ's 
and  the  apostles'  doctrine.  Every  one  of  you  have  a  light 
from  Christ,  who  saith,  T  am  the  light  of  the  world,'  and 
doth  enlighten  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  He 
saith,  'Learn  of  me,'  whose  doctrine,  and  that  of  the  apostle, 
is  not  to  swear;  but,  'Let  your  yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay 
be  nay,  in  all  your  comiTiunication ;  for  whatsoever  is  more 
cometh  of  evil;'  they  ""hat  go  into  more  than  yea  and  nay 
go  into  evil,  and  are  out  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  If  you 
say,  'That  the  oath  was  the  end  of  controversy  and  strife;' 
those  who  are  in  strife  are  out  of  Christ's  doctrine;  for  he  is 
the  covenant  of  peace,  and  who  are  in  that,  are  in  the 
covenant  of  peace.  The  apostle  brings  that  but  as  an  exam- 
ple: as  men  swearing  by  the  greater,  and  the  oath  was  the 
end  of  controversy  and  strife  among  men;  saying.  Verily, 
men  swear  by  the  greater;  but  God  having  no  greater  swears 
by  himself  concerning  Christ;  who,  when  he  was  come, 


126      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


taught  not  to  swear  at  all.  So  those  who  are  in  him,  and 
follow  him,  cannot  but  abide  in  his  doctrine.  If  you  say 
they  swore  under  the  law,  and  under  the  prophets,  Christ 
is  the  end  of  the  law  and  of  the  prophets,  to  every  one  that 
belie veth  for  righteousness'  sake.  Now  mark,  if  you  be- 
lieve "I  am  the  light  of  the  world,  which  enlighteneth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world,'  saith  Christ,  by  whom  it 
was  made;  now  every  man  of  you  that  is  come  into  the 
world  is  enlightened  with  a  light  that  comes  from  Christ, 
by  which  the  world  was  made,  that  all  of  you  through  him 
might  believe,  that  is  the  end  for  which  he  doth  enlighten 
you.  Now  if  you  do  believe  in  the  light,  as  Christ  com- 
mands, 'Believe  in  the  light,  that  you  may  be  children  of 
light;'  you  believe  in  Christ  and  learn  of  him,  who  is  the 
way  to  the  Father.  This  is  the  light  which  shews  the  evil 
actions  you  have  all  acted,  the  ungodly  deeds  you  have  com- 
mitted, the  ungodly  speeches  you  have  spoken ;  and  all  your 
oaths,  cursed  speaking,  and  ungodly  actions.  If  you  heark- 
en to  this  light,  it  will  let  you  see  all  that  you  have  done 
contrary  to  it;  and  loving  it,  it  will  turn  you  from  your 
evil  deeds,  evil  ways,  and  evil  words,  to  Christ,  who  is  not 
of  the  world;  but  is  the  light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world,  and  testifies  against  the  world,  that 
the  deeds  thereof  are  evil.  So  doth  the  light  in  every  man, 
received  from  him,  testify  against  all  evil  works,  that  they 
are  contrary  to  the  light;  and  each  shall  give  an  account 
at  the  day  of  Judgment,  for  every  idle  word  that  is  spoken. 
This  light  shall  bring  every  tongue  to  confess,  yea  and  every 
knee  to  bow,  at  the  name  of  Jesus:  in  which  light,  if  you 
believe,  you  shall  not  come  into  condemnation,  but  to 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  127 


Christ,  who  is  not  of  the  world,  to  him  by  whom  it  was 
made:  but  if  you  believe  not  in  the  light,  this  is  your  con- 
demnation. G.  F." 

The  Quakers  were  the  first  we  have  seen  to  allow  women 
to  speak  in  meetings,  and  the  fact  that  they  did,  and  in- 
sisted upon  it  with  fervor  and  enthusiasm,  brought  upon 
them  great  suffering  and  martyrdom,  and  they  were  ar- 
rested and  confined  in  America.  This  persecution  of  de- 
fenceless women  was  not  confined  to  the  ignorant,  illiterate 
or  to  extreme  emotional  cases,  but  to  the  refined  and  culti- 
vated, as  Margaret  Fell,  and  later  Mary  Dyer,  who  was 
hanged  on  Boston  Common.  Among  the  first  women  to 
suffer  in  England  were  Elizabeth  Heavens  and  Elizabeth 
Fletcher,  who  were  arrested  in  Oxford  in  June,  1654,  for 
speaking  in  the  streets  in  favor  of  Quakerism.  In  fact, 
they  were  ministers  who  felt  called  upon  to  protest  against 
the  low  standards  of  the  times. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind,  that  during  this  period  the 
Friends  were  not  attempting  to  establish  a  new  church  or 
a  religion,  they  were  not  proselyting;  they  were  merely  pro- 
testing against  existing  methods  as  ungodly  and  unchristian. 
These  two  women  attempted  to  speak  to  the  students  and 
were  mobbed.  One  was  pushed  into  a  grave.  Then  they 
were  tied  together  and  thrown  under  the  town  pump,  into 
ditches,  and  so  foully  treated  that  soon  after  one  of  them 
died ;  but  not  before  both  were  publicly  whipped  and  driven 
from  the  city  as  outcasts  and  beyond  the  pale  of  human 
consideration. 

Another  minister,  named  Barbara  Blaugdone,  was  thrown 
into  prison,  later  stabbed,  and  again  thrown  into  prisons 
at  Marlborough,   Devonshire,   Moulton,   Barnstaple  and 


128      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


Bediford.  In  Great  Torrington,  a  priest  so  influenced  the 
Mayor  that  this  delicate  woman  was  arrested  and  beaten, 
until  men  and  women  who  witnessed  it,  were  sickened  by 
the  flow  of  blood.  The  officials  were  amazed,  as  the  woman 
sang  praises  to  the  Lord  as  they  cut  and  lashed  her  bare 
flesh. 

I  do  not  intend  to  make  this  a  book  of  martyrs,  hence 
can  but  touch  on  the  horrors  of  this  martyrdom,  and  the 
brutal,  inconceivable  things  perpetrated  under  the  banner 
of  the  cross,  only  explainable  under  the  premise  that  human 
beings  were  still  in  the  age  of  partial  savagery.  Examining 
the  evidence  of  these  courts  and  trials  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  later,  when  it  is  supposed  time  has  tempered 
passion  and  prejudice,  the  judicial  observer  is  impressed 
by  the  evident  unfairness  of  the  enemies  of  Fox;  and  also 
with  the  fact  that  the  remarks  of  the  Quaker  leader,  while 
not  so  intended,  must  have  been  interpreted  as  extremely 
offensive.  One  illustration  may  suffice:  Fox  and  Edward 
Pyot  of  Bristol  were  arrested,  and  there  was,  in  all  prob- 
ability, so  ugly  a  feeling  against  them,  that  if  an  excuse 
had  offered,  their  enemies  would  gladly  have  seen  them 
hung.  Major  Ceely,  Justice  of  the  Peace,  was  testifying, 
and  said,  "If  it  please  you,  my  lord,  to  hear  me:  this  man 
struck  me,  and  gave  me  such  a  blow  as  I  never  had  in  my 
life."  "At  this,"  Fox  says,  "I  smiled  in  my  heart,  and 
replied,  'Major  Ceely,  art  thou  a  justice  of  peace,  and  a 
major  of  a  troop  of  horse,  and  tellest  the  judge  in  the  face 
of  the  court  and  country,  that  I,  a  prisoner  struck  thee, 
and  gave  thee  such  a  blow  as  thou  never  hadst  the  like  in 
thy  life?  What!  art  thou  not  ashamed?  Prithee,  Major 
Ceely,'  said  I,  'where  did  I  strike  thee?  and  who  is  thy 

r 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL       1 29 


witness  for  that?  who  was  by?'  He  said,  'It  was  in  the 
Castle-Green,  and  Captain  Bradden  was  standing  by  when 
I  struck  him.'  I  desired  the  judge  to  let  him  produce  his 
witness  for  that;  and  called  again  upon  Major  Ceely  to 
come  down  from  the  bench,  telling  him,  it  was  not  fit  the 
accuser  should  sit  as  judge  over  the  accused.  When  I  called 
again  for  his  witness,  he  said  Captain  Bradden  was  his  wit- 
ness. Then  I  said,  'Speak,  Captain  Bradden,  didst  thou 
see  me  give  him  such  a  blow,  and  strike  him  as  he  saith?' 
Captain  Bradden  made  no  answer,  but  bowed  his  head 
towards  me.  I  desired  him  to  speak  up,  if  he  knew  any 
such  thing:  but  he  only  bowed  his  head  again.  'Nay,'  said 
I,  'speak  up,  and  let  the  court  and  country  hear;  let  not 
bowing  of  the  head  serve  the  turn.  If  I  have  done  so,  let 
the  law  be  inflicted  on  me;  I  fear  not  sufferings,  nor  death 
itself,  for  I  am  an  innocent  man  concerning  all  his  charge.' 
But  Captain  Bradden  never  testified  to  it.  The  judge,  find- 
ing those  snares  would  not  hold,  cried,  'Take  him  away, 
gaoler;'  and  when  we  were  taken  away,  he  fined  us  twenty 
marks  apiece  for  not  putting  off  our  hats;  to  be  kept  in 
prison  till  we  paid  it ;  and  sent  us  back  to  the  gaol. 

"At  night  Captain  Bradden  came  to  see  us,  and  seven  or 
eight  justices  who  were  very  civil  to  us,  and  told  us.  They 
believed,  neither  the  judge  nor  any  in  the  court  gave  credit 
to  those  charges  which  Major  Ceely  had  accused  me  of  in 
the  face  of  the  country.  And  Captain  Bradden  said  Major 
Ceely  had  an  intent  to  have  taken  away  my  life,  if  he  could 
have  got  another  witness.  'But,'  said  I,  'Captain  Bradden, 
why  didst  not  thou  witness  for  me,  or  against  me,  seeing 
that  Major  Ceely  produced  thee  for  a  witness  that  thou 

sawest  me  strike  him?  When  I  desired  thee  to  speak  either 
9 


130      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


for  me  or  against  me,  according  to  what  thou  sawest  or 
knewest,  thou  wouldst  not  speak.'  'Why,'  said  he,  'when 
Major  Ceely  and  I  came  by  you,  as  you  were  walking  in  the 
Castle-green,  he  put  off  his  hat  to  you,  and  said,  'How  do 
you,  Mr.  Fox?  your  servant.  Sir.'  Then  you  said  to  him, 
'Major  Ceely,  take  heed  of  hypocrisy  and  of  a  rotten  heart; 
for  when  came  I  to  be  thy  master,  and  thou  my  servant? 
Do  servants  use  to  cast  their  masters  in  prison?  This  was 
the  great  blow  he  meant  that  you  gave  him.'  Then  I  called 
to  mind  that  they  walked  by  us,  and  that  he  spoke  so  to  me, 
and  I  to  him;  which  hypocrisy  and  rotten-heartedness  he 
manifested  openly,  when  he  complained  of  this  to  the  judge 
in  open  court,  and  in  the  face  of  the  country;  whom  he 
would  have  made  believe  that  1  struck  him  with  my  hand." 

The  strong  affection  the  followers  of  George  Fox  had  for 
him  is  illustrated  when  he  was  lying  in  Doomsdale  Prison. 
One  of  his  friends,  James  Parnell,  went  to  Cromwell  and 
asked  to  be  placed  in  the  cell  in  the  place  of  Fox.  Crom- 
well was  greatly  impressed  by  this  evidence  of  true  devo- 
tion, and  turning  toward  the  group  of  his  listening  follow- 
ers, he  said,  "Which  of  you  would  do  as  much  for  me,  if  I 
were  in  the  same  condition?" 

The  feature  of  the  Quakers  which  attracted  the  most 
attention  was  their  extraordinary  persistence,  and  the  fact 
that  they  never  retaliated  upon  their  enemies,  except  to 
rebuke  them,  generally  with  appropriate  quotations  from 
the  Bible.  When  one  went  to  jail,  another  minister  soon 
appeared  to  repeat  the  offense;  and  there  is  little  question 
that  these  ministers  rising  at  the  end  of  a  Presbyterian  or 
Episcopalian  or  Catholic  service  and  criticising  the  partic- 
ular form  was  extremely  offensive,  and  caused  much  of  the 


* 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  131 


trouble,  despite  the  fact  that  there  was  precedent  for  the 
intrusion.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  remarks 
by  Quakers  in  churches  or  "steeple-houses"  were  not  gratuit- 
ous insults;  they  were  made  by  conscientious  men  and 
women  who  believed  they  were  carrying  out  the  will  of  the 
Lord. 

There  was  from  now  on  hardly  an  indignity  that  the 
Quakers  were  not  subjected  to;  and  volumes  could  be  filled 
with  accounts  of  the  sufferings  of  these  men  and  women 
for  the  sake  of  a  principle. 

Humphrey  Smith  was  arrested  at  Eversham  and  placed 
in  the  stocks,  and  later  the  same  Mayor  placed  two  Quaker 
ministers,  Margaret  Newby  and  Elizabeth  Courton,  in  the 
stocks  for  fifteen  hours  on  a  freezing  day,  and  then  sent 
them  out  of  the  town.  There  was  not  a  jail  in  England, 
even  the  vilest  dungeon,  but  contained  at  some  time  one  or 
more  Quakers  who  were  shown  little  or  no  mercy.  Many 
Quakers  in  1656  went  abroad.  William  Caton,  who  had 
made  a  trip  through  Scotland,  sailed  for  Holland,  where 
he  preached  in  Latin. 

The  cause  of  the  Quakers  in  1656-7  and  later,  was,  un- 
doubtedly, injured  by  fanatics.  One  by  the  name  of  Nay- 
lor,  was  an  ex-soldier.  He  attracted  a  number  of  male 
and  female  fanatics  and  extremists  to  him,  and  they  un- 
questionably became  a  public  nuisance.  The  most  char- 
itable explanation  is  that  they  were  partly  demented,  a 
condition  not  unusual  in  times  of  great  religious  excite- 
ment. But  this  did  not  justify  Parliament  taking  up  the 
matter  and  condemning  Naylor  to  a  horrible  punishment, 
a  feature  of  which  was  to  have  his  tongue  bored  with  a  red 
hot  iron,  when  he  rightly  should  have  had  the  attention  of 


132      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


a  physician  and  been  placed  in  confinement  as  a  religious 
fanatic.  What  actually  happened  was  that  the  seeming  at- 
tention given  to  this  unfortunate  man,  caused  him  to  be- 
come in  a  sense  a  martyr;  and  his  writings  and  sayings  to 
receive  much  more  attention  from  contemporary  authors 
than  they  deserved.  Naylor's  actions  brought  down  much 
criticism  upon  the  Quakers,  altogether  undeserved,  as  the 
man  and  his  followers  were  in  the  main  irresponsible. 

There  were  so  many  Friends  in  jail  at  that  time  that 
every  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  justice  for  them.  Thomas 
Aldam  and  Anthony  Pearson  travelled  through  England 
visiting  all  the  jails  making  copies  of  the  commitments  of 
Quakers,  compiling  a  list  that  was  so  menacing  to  public 
safety  that  it  was  not  supposed  that  Cromwell  would  have 
the  temerity  to  pass  it  by.  But  he  refused  to  intercede  and 
Thomas  Aldam,  who  presented  it,  took  his  cap  from  his 
head,  and  as  a  "sign"  tore  it  in  shreds  before  the  Pro- 
tector, remarking  in  prophetic  words,  "So  shall  thy  gov- 
ernment be  rent  from  thee  and  thy  house." 

The  Quakers  were  not  politicians.  They  were  not  gifted 
with  the  arts  of  diplomacy,  and  they  cared  little  for  the 
fact  that  Cromwell's  interests  were  bound  up  in  the  Inde- 
pendents and  Presbyterians,  and  that  he  could  not  afford 
to  stand  boldly  by  the  Quakers  and  offend  the  former. 
They  demanded  the  release  of  their  friends,  as  pure  justice, 
and  the  abrogation  of  the  offensive  laws  because  they  were 
wrong.  In  the  fifth  month  of  1656,  the  enemies  of  the 
Quakers  succeeded  in  securing  the  issuing  of  a  warrant  from 
the  session  of  Exon  for  the  apprehension  of  all  Quakers, 
and  the  number  in  jail  was  so  rapidly  increased  that  in  some 
regions  it  was  an  embarrassment,  due  to  the  fact  that  such 


MARTYRDOxM  UNDER  CROMWELL  133 


prisoners  on  liberation  began  at  once  to  preach  again,  only 
to  be  arrested. 

George  Fox,  now  in  the  dungeon  at  Lauceston,  sent  forth 
many  appeals  to  the  powers  and  the  people,  which  may  be 
found  in  his  Journal.  Cromwell,  to  whom  many  of  these 
appeals  were  made,  well  knew  that  the  thousands  of  Qua- 
kers languishing  in  jail  was  in  a  political  sense  disquieting; 
but  he  was  not  unmindful  of  other  sects  who  opposed  them. 
His  policy  in  Ireland  was  bringing  down  upon  him  the 
curses  of  the  people,  yet  he  was  making  England  respected 
abroad  by  showing  a  mail-clad  front.  His  power  and  am- 
bition forced  him  to  antagonize  Spain  and  to  make  friends 
with  Sweden  as  the  natural  enemy  of  the  Anti-Christ. 
Spain  and  France  were  warring,  and  one  of  the  questions 
he  had  to  decide  was,  which  to  side  with.  He  chose  France 
and  all  Europe  trembled  as  his  shadow  loomed  against  the 
chalk-cliffs  of  England.  The  Puritan  Admiral  Blake  won 
a  battle  over  the  Spaniards,  and  Admiral  Penn,  father  of 
William,  proceeded  against  San  Domingo,  which  resulted  in 
the  taking  of  Jamaica  and  the  establishment  of  England 
as  a  power  in  the  West  Indies.  By  the  aid  of  Cromwell, 
France  became  supreme  cn  the  continent,  and  he  took  Dun- 
kirk to  repay  England.  All  this  time,  the  court  of  Crom- 
well was  that  anachronism  of  the  time,  pure,  clean  and 
based  on  Christian  ideals.  No  man  was  appointed  to  office 
who  was  known  to  be  immoral  or  dishonest;  yet  Cromwell 
permitted  gross  atrocities  against  the  Quakers. 

George  Fox,  again  out  of  jail,  was  preaching  through- 
out the  country.  With  John  Ap  John  he  travelled  in  Wales, 
then  went  to  Scotland,  where  he  was  ordered  to  appear 
before  the  council  to  whom  he  made  an  address. 


134      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


In  1688,  the  Protector  died,  and  England  was  again  in- 
volved in  intense  political  excitement,  and  the  affairs  of  the 
Quakers  for  the  moment  forgotten.  During  the  ten  years 
of  Cromwell's  supremacy,  about  two  thousand  Quakers  had 
suffered  tortures;  many  had  died  in  prisons,  hundreds  died 
later  from  horrible  injuries,  of  diseases  due  to  their  im- 
prisonment, and  many  were  ruined  financially  or  driven 
away.  Yet  on  the  death  of  Cromwell,  they  had  increased 
and  now  assumed,  at  least  to  their  enemies,  formidable 
proportions. 

As  Parliament  had  authorized  Cromwell  to  indicate  his 
successor,  he  named  his  son  on  his  deathbed.  The  latter 
took  office  immediately  and  as  quickly  demonstrated  that 
he  was  his  father's  son  but  in  name.  It  was  soon  apparent 
that  the  Royalists,  Republicans  and  other  parties  were  all 
striving  for  control.  Richard  Cromwell  came  into  power 
practically  an  unknown  quantity.  His  attitude  to  the  Qua- 
kers was  friendly;  but  he  was  a  man  of  little  or  no  force, 
and  the  general  form  of  government  retrograded  to  that 
in  vogue  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  The  Royal- 
ists continually  endeavored  to  create  unrest,  aided  by  the 
ambitions  of  individuals  and  various  parties.  The  army 
was  divided  against  itself.  General  Monk,  who  had  served 
many  parties  and  masters,  was  now  a  dominant  figure, 
and  in  the  midst  of  political  pandemonium,  he  headed  his 
army  of  veterans  in  Scotland,  crossed  the  English  line,  and 
marched  toward  London.  A  clever  politician,  as  well  as 
soldier,  Monk  was  looking  to  the  main  chance,  and  arriv- 
ing in  London,  he  carefully  felt  his  way,  and  being  the 
balance  of  power,  declared  in  favor  of  a  free  Parliament. 
Monk  became  the  hero  of  the  day.    The  new  Parliament 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  135 


met  at  Westminster  and  the  joint  houses  invited  King 
Charles  the  Second  to  return  to  the  country.  This  was  not 
a  happy  period  for  the  Quakers,  as  the  following  letter  of 
Edward  Billing  well  discloses: 

"Since  General  Monk's  coming  to  London  with  his  army, 
we  have  been  very  much  abused  in  our  meetings;  as  in  the 
Palace-yard,  where  we  were  pulled  out  by  the  hair  of  the 
head,  kicked  and  knocked  down,  both  men  and  women,  in 
a  manner  not  here  to  be  expressed.  Many  were  the  knocks 
and  kicks  and  blows  myself  and  wife  received.  And  this 
was  done  by  General  Monk's  foot,  who  came  into  the  meet- 
ing with  sword  and  pistol,  being,  as  they  said,  bound  by 
an  oath  to  leave  never  a  sectarian  in  England;  saying  that 
they  had  orders  from  Lord  Monk  to  pull  us  out  of  our 
meeting;  which,  with  inexpressible  cruelty,  they  did.  The 
meeting  in  the  Palace-yard,  I  suppose  thou  knowest. 

"After  they  had  beaten  us  in  the  house  with  their  swords 
in  the  scabbards,  and  with  whips,  out  they  drag  us,  and 
kick  us  into  the  kennel,  where  many  a  blow  I  received, 
being  knocked  and  kicked  through  the  Palace-yard,  even 
to  the  hall  door.  Being  got  within  the  hall,  after  a  little 
recovery  I  was  moved  to  write  a  little  note  to  the  Speaker 
in  the  House, — Parliament  being  then  sitting.  As  soon  as 
I  got  into  the  lobby,  I  sent  into  the  House  for  Sergeant 
Chedleton,  who  came  to  me,  and  I  gave  him  the  note,  laying 
it  upon  him  to  give  to  the  Speaker,  which  he  did,  and  it 
was  forthwith  read  in  the  House,  when  an  enemy  stands 
up  and  says,  'The  multitude  is  appeased,'  &c.,  &c.  I  passed 
through  them  back  again  to  the  meeting  house,  when  they 
fell  upon  me  the  second  time,  as  before.  In  my  passing 
back  to  my  own  lodging  they  ceased  not,  but  kept  crying, 
'Kill  him,  kill  him!' 


136      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


"We  afterwards  met  Colonel  Rich,  who  was  much  af- 
fected to  see  and  hear  of  our  usage.  With  him,  I  passed 
through  the  Palace-yard  again,  the  soldiers  and  multitude 
being  just  then  beating  a  woman  of  the  house  at  the  door, 
and  plundering  the  house,  notwithstanding  it  had  been  said 
that  the  tumult  was  appeased.  At  last  I  got  to  Whitehall, 
where  General  Monk  was,  with  whom  I  had  present  aud- 
ience. In  a  few  words  I  laid  the  whole  matter  before  him, 
and  told  him  that  the  soldiers  said  they  had  his  order  for  it. 
(He  said)  he  might  say  they  had  not.  I  answered,  that 
since  he  and  his  army  had  come  to  town  we  could  not 
pass  the  streets  without  much  abuse;  not  having  been  so 
much  abused  these  many  years — nay,  I  say,  never  by  sol- 
diers." 

It  was  nearly  ten  years  after  George  Fox  began  to 
preach,  or  in  1654,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Quakers  began 
to  be  preached  in  Ireland  to  any  extent.  William  Ed- 
mundson,  who  later  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
ministers  among  the  Friends,  was  the  first  to  join  them. 
He  was  a  soldier  under  Cromwell  and  had  served  in  Scot- 
land. In  1654,  Miles  Halhead,  James  Lancaster  and  Miles 
Bateman  visited  Ireland,  and  later  John  Tiffin,  who  trav- 
elled over  the  country  with  William  Edmundson,  and 
Richard  Clayton,  who  now  reached  Ireland,  preaching  at 
Colerain,  for  which  they  were  banished.  They  visited 
Kilmore  and  Antrim,  but  were  thrown  into  jail  at  Armagh, 
from  which  Edmundson  was  soon  released. 

George  Fox  had  sent  Edward  Burrough  and  Francis  How- 
gill  to  Ireland,  and  the  program  was  arranged  with  such 
skill  and  generalship,  that  no  sooner  did  one  set  of  preach- 
ers visit  a  locality  and  be  committed  to  jail,  than  another 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  137 


party  would  take  their  place;  in  this  way  a  continual  in- 
terest was  kept  up.  These  Friends  made  many  converts  in 
Munster.  Edward  Burrough  preached  to  great  crowds 
from  his  saddle  as  he  rode  down  the  street.  A  number  or 
women  ministers  visited  Ireland  at  this  time,  among  them 
Elizabeth  Fletcher,  Elizabeth  Smith,  Anne  Gould  and 
Julian  Westwood,  who  performed  prodigies  of  valor  in  the 
defense  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Friends.  The  method  of  at- 
tack of  Quakers  is  well  illustrated  in  Limerick,  where  a 
famous  religious  disputant,  named  Captain  Wilkinson,  at 
one  time  chief  magistrate,  held  forth.  The  wandering  Qua- 
ker preachers  heard  of  him,  and  one  night,  headed  by  one 
Abraham  Newbold,  entered  the  hall  where  he  was  preach- 
ing, and  after  listening  a  few  moments,  cried  out  in  sten- 
torian voice,  "Serpent  be  silent!"  a  novel  method  of  dis- 
cussion which  either  so  enraged  or  astonished  the  officer 
that  he  fainted  away  and  had  to  be  carried  out,  and  soon 
gave  up  discussing  religion,  at  least  with  Quakers. 

Then  out  of  Scotland  came  the  Barclays  of  Kirk-town- 
hill.  David  was  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  Gustavus- 
Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden,  and  later  a  colonel  in  the  Scot- 
tish Army.  He  became  governor  of  Strathboggie  and  mar- 
ried Catherine  Gordon,  granddaughter  of  the  Earl  of  Suth- 
erland, a  third  cousin  of  James  the  first.  Later  he  entered 
Parliament,  and  was  prominent  in  upholding  the  waning 
ambitions  of  Cromwell  in  the  direction  of  the  throne. 
Later  he  was  thrown  into  Edinburgh  Castle  as  a  prisoner, 
and  became  a  Quaker.  It  was  David  Barclay,  who,  when 
taunted  as  to  his  change  of  station,  now  beaten  and  insulted 
by  the  riff-raff,  replied,  "I  find  more  true  satisfaction  in  be- 
ing insulted  for  my  religious  principles  than  I  did  when 


138      MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL 


the  magistrates  of  the  City  of  Aberdeen  met  me  miles  from 
the  city  to  do  me  honor  and  escort  me  to  public  entertain- 
ments in  their  town  house."  David  was  the  father  of  Rob- 
ert Barclay,  the  author  of  the  ''Apology"  and  voluminous 
writer  on  the  Friends,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  followers 
of  George  Fox,  a  man  of  highest  culture  and  learning. 

Samuel  Randall  and  Joseph  Pike  also  preached  in  Ire- 
land. Meetings  were  held  in  Scotland  as  early  as  1653, 
especially  at  Drumbowry  and  Heads,  Colonel  Osborne, 
Richard  Rae  and  Alexander  Hamilton  being  the  preach- 
ers. These  men  had  no  connection  with  the  Quakers,  but 
they  had  possibly  heard  of  George  Fox  and  they  soon 
joined  him,  when  Christopher  Fell,  George  Wilson,  John 
Grave,  George  Atkinson,  Sarah  Cheevers  and  Catherine 
Evans,  preachers,  came  that  way.  They  were  followed  in 
1654  by  Myles  Halhead  and  James  Lancaster,  and  in  1655 
William  Caton  and  John  Stubbs  preached  in  Scotland. 
In  1657  George  Fox  visited  Edinburgh,  and  in  1658  John 
Burnyeat  visited  Aberdeen,  making  a  convert  of  Alexander 
Jaffray  and  many  others. 

The  Friends  were  as  badly  treated  in  Ireland  as  else- 
where. Edmundson  was  placed  in  the  stocks  at  Belturbet, 
and  the  women  thrown  into  jail;  while  Robert  Wardell 
was  placed  in  the  stocks  for  talking  to  the  Provost. 

In  1660  Christopher  Holder  appeared  in  London  from 
the  American  colony  with  but  one  ear,  the  other  having 
been  cut  off  in  Boston  on  the  order  of  Governor  Endicott, 
to  punish  Holder  for  the  high  crime  of  insisting  upon  the 
right  of  free  conscience  in  America.  Holder,  doubtless,  at- 
tracted much  attention  as  his  objective  was  to  appeal  to 
Cromwell  in  behalf  of  the  Friends  in  the  colonies.  While 


MARTYRDOM  UNDER  CROMWELL  139 


here,  Holder  was  married  to  Mary  Scott,  of  a  well-known 
and  distinguished  family  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 
With  George  Fox  and  Samuel  Shattock  and  others,  he  was 
interested  in  the  restoration  of  Charles  the  Second,  and 
labored  to  that  end. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 

(Charles  II.) 
1660-1667. 

The  first  official  document  relating  to  the  Quakers  under 
the  Restoration  was  General  Monk's  distinctly  friendly  re- 
ply to  the  Billing  appeal: 

'T  do  require  all  officers  and  soldiers  to  forbear  to  dis- 
turb the  peaceable  meetings  of  the  Quakers,  they  doing 
nothing  prejudicial  to  the  Parliament  or  Commonwealth  of 
England. 

George  Monk." 

This  was  necessary ;  moreover,  the  King  when  paving  the 
way  to  return,  had  thrown  a  sop  to  the  Quakers  in  an  out- 
line of  the  policy  that  should  govern  him,  as  follows: 

"Breda,  Fourth  month  of  1660. 

"Because  the  passion  and  uncharitableness  of  the  times 
have  produced  several  opinions  in  religion,  by  which  men 
are  engaged  in  parties  and  animosities  against  each  other, 
which  when  they  shall  hereafter  unite,  in  a  freedom  of  con- 
versation, will  be  composed,  or  better  understood;  we  do 
declare  a  liberty  of  consciences  and  that  no  man  shall  be 
disquieted,  or  called  in  question  for  differences  of  opinion, 
in  matters  of  religion, — which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  kingdom,  and  that  we  shall  be  ready  to  consent  to  such 
an  act  of  Parliament  as  upon  mature  deliberation  shall  be 
offered  to  us  for  the  full  granting  of  that  indulgence." 


GEXERAL  M()\K 


LOU  1 8  IT. 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION     ,  141 


One  of  the  King's  first  proclamations  set  free  all  who 
were  imprisoned  on  account  of  religious  belief;  and,  as  a 
result,  seven  hundred  Quakers  were  restored  to  liberty; 
naturally,  there  was  much  rejoicing  among  them. 

There  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  King  would  have  dealt 
fairly  with  the  Quakers,  had  he  followed  his  own  desires; 
but  the  Quakers  were  but  one  sect  among  many,  and  it  was 
practically  impossible  for  him  to  sit  in  judgment  on  them 
all.  Again,  he  was  surrounded  by  advisers  who  were 
enemies  of  Fox  and  his  followers;  hence  a  continual  recital 
of  complaints  against  the  Quakers  could  not  fail  to  have 
an  effect.  They  were  charged  with  actually  plotting  against 
the  crown,  as  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  of  being  Jesuits  in 
disguise,  of  planning  wholesale  insurrections  and  even  mur- 
der. Nothing  was  too  extreme  to  fasten  upon  these  in- 
offensive people,  who  but  rarely  were  heard  in  reply.  An- 
other reason  for  this,  was  the  extraordinary  confusion  re- 
garding any  ecclesiastical  policy.  Episcopacy  was  still  the 
unrepealed  law,  while  the  form  of  government  which  still 
held  by  virtue  of  Parliamentary  ordinance  was  Presby- 
terian. Such  a  state  of  affairs  with  the  active  zealots  of 
each  and  many  sects  at  work,  with  George  Fox  protesting 
and  preaching,  could  not  fail  to  increase  the  confusion. 
Peace  had  been  declared,  the  King  was  in  power  again  on 
the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  the  civil  policy  of  Charles  the 
First  was  established;  but  religious  chaos  involved  all  Eng- 
land. The  Royalists  were  clamoring  for  synods  and  a  di- 
rectory. The  followers  of  Laud  were  in  arms  against  the 
believers  in  Calvin,  both  bigots  of  an  extreme  type.  Then 
there  were  the  moderate  Episcopalians  of  the  Usher  schism 
and  the  immoderate  Presbyterians  of  the  school  of  Baxter, 


142  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


all  contending,  denouncing,  preaching,  a  heterogenious  com- 
mingling of  impossibilities,  which  the  Cavaliers  laughed 
at  and  refused  to  take  seriously. 

There  is  nothing  so  strange  in  the  world  of  1913  as  the 
fact  that  literally  thousands  of  religions  have  been  con- 
structed on  the  philosophy  of  Christ — Confucious,  Brahma, 
Hillel,  and  a  few  others.  This  being  true,  little  wonder 
religion  in  many  forms  ran  riot  in  1660.  The  Royalists, 
divided  as  they  were  into  many  sects,  still  looked  upon  the 
Episcopal  Church  as  the  only  form  deserving  recognition. 
Yet  the  new  House  of  Commons,  friendly  to  the  House 
of  Stuart,  had  a  Presbyterian  majority. 

The  Quakers  were  carrying  on  a  propoganda  of  aggres- 
sive justice  in  every  part  of  England,  Scotland,  Wales  and 
the  colonies.  To  the  King,  religion  seemed  a  farce,  and 
what  had  been  an  ecclesiastical  policy  during  the  reign  of 
his  father,  seemed  to  be  involved  in  inextricable  confusion. 
Puritanism  had  run  mad.  They  had  made  it  a  crime  to 
read  the  book  of  Common  Prayer.  He  who  attacked  the 
Calvinistic  form  was  a  public  enemy.  Clergymen  had  been 
literally  thrown  out  of  churches,  and  the  latter  robbed  of 
their  works  of  art  by  a  fanatical  rabble  of  iconoclasts. 
Even  the  Parliament  declared  that  all  the  paintings  in  the 
Royal  Collection  which  contained  figures  of  the  Virgin, 
should  be  destroyed.  Men  went  mad,  and  art  was  crushed 
under  foot.  They  had  practically  wiped  out  Christmas 
and  by  an  act  of  Parliament  made  it  a  day  of  fasting. 
George  Fox  had  denounced  the  use  of  the  words  January 
and  Wednesday  as  homage  to  the  idols,  Janos  and  Woden. 
Such  a  condition  of  things,  when  the  extreme  seemed  to 
have  been  reached  by  all  sects,  could  have  but  one  ending. 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  143 


a  complete  revulsion  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  masses; 
and  it  came  with  the  Restoration. 

The  Quakers  were  now  looked  upon  as  despicable  fana- 
tics, and  the  Puritans  as  canting  Schismatics.  The  Puri- 
tans and  Caveliers  agreed  in  the  main  issue  of  the  Restora- 
tion, but  they  split  on  the  rock  of  religion.  The  masses 
were  weary  of  Puritans,  Quakers  and  the  stringent  laws 
and  rules;  and  they  looked  to  the  King,  a  good  natured, 
blase  sensualist,  who  loved  his  ease  too  much  to  interest 
himself  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation ;  but  desired  power  that 
he  might  enjoy  himself.  It  was  this  characteristic  that 
turned  England  against  Presbyterianism  and  Quakerism. 
They  interfered  with  the  pleasures  of  the  king.  The  Cav- 
aliers won,  and  the  Church  of  England  came  into  power 
and  with  it,  rolled  on  a  tidal  wave  of  excess,  sensualism 
and  enactments,  undoing  the  reforms  of  the  Cromwellian 
era. 

Such,  briefly,  was  the  state  of  alfairs  during  the  early 
part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  a  condition  an- 
tagonistic to  the  safety  of  the  Quakers;  yet  they  increased 
in  number  and  even  became  more  and  more  systematically 
aggressive  in  their  admonitions  and  rebukes  at  the  deca- 
dence of  morality. 

The  Quakers  had  used  all  their  influence  to  secure  the 
restoration  of  Charles  II.,  and  Samuel  Shattuck,  Edward 
Hubberthorn,  George  Fox,  Edward  Burrough  and  others 
called  the  attention  of  the  King  to  Copeland  and  Holder, 
with  ears  cut  off  like  hounds:  whereupon  the  King  assured 
Richard  Hubberthorn  "that  their  sufferings  were  at  an  end," 
and  his  order  releasing  seven  hundred  Quakers  from  jail 
was  an  evidence  of  his  good  faith. 


144  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


About  this  time,  despite  the  friendly  acts  of  the  King,  the 
enemies  of  the  Quakers  grew  bolder,  and  a  general  move- 
ment was  made  against  them.  George  Fox  was  arrested  at 
Swarthmore,  at  the  house  of  Margaret  Fell,  and  the  latter 
and  Anne  Curtis  journeyed  to  London  to  see  the  King. 
As  a  result,  George  Fox  was  given  a  hearing,  the  King  dis- 
playing much  interest  in  a  long  questioning  which  he  gave 
him  regarding  the,  to  him,  peculiar  belief  of  the  Quakers. 
During  the  hearing  he  reiterated  his  former  friendly  feel- 
ing by  saying,  "Well,  of  this  you  may  be  assured,  that  you 
shall  none  of  you  suffer  for  your  opinions  on  religion,  so 
long  as  you  live  peaceably,  and  you  have  the  word  of  the 
King  for  it;  and  I  have  also  given  forth  a  declaration  to 
the  same  purpose,  that  none  shall  wrong  you  or  abuse  you." 
George  Fox  was  released  after  twenty  weeks  in  jail  on  this 
order : 

"By  virtue  of  a  warrant  which  this  morning  I  have  re- 
ceived from  the  right  honorable  Sir  Edward  Nicholas, 
knight,  one  of  his  Majesty's  principal  secretaries,  for  the 
releasing  and  setting  at  liberty  of  George  Fox,  late  a  pris- 
oner in  Lancaster  jail,  and  from  thence  brought  hither,  by 
habeas  corpus,  and  yesterday  committed  unto  your  custody ; 
I  do  hereby  require  you  accordingly  to  release,  and  set  the 
said  prisoner,  George  Fox,  at  liberty;  for  which  this  shall 
be  your  warrant  and  discharge.  Given  under  my  hand  the 
25th  day  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God,  1660." 

THOMAS  MALLET 

Unquestionably  the  King  was  earnest  and  sincere  in  his 
intentions  to  the  Quakers  at  this  time,  and  he  repeatedly 
reiterated  to  George  Fox  and  to  Richard  Hubberthorn  that 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  145 


they  should  be  protected  in  their  religion;  and  that  his 
famous  statement  from  Breda  was  to  be  lived  up  to.  Un- 
fortunately for  the  Quakers,  about  this  time,  certain  re- 
ligious fanatics  known  as  "Fifth  Monarch)^  Men"  broke 
out,  claiming  to  have  the  right  to  seat,  "King  Jesus."  The 
movement  was  confined  to  a  few  mad  schismatics  of  the 
Millenarian  party,  and  was  snuffed  out  in  less  than  a  week; 
but  it  was  used  by  the  enemies  of  the  Quakers,  and  the 
King  was  so  influenced  that  he,  doubtless,  began  to  fear 
treason,  and  so  was  induced  to  issue  proclamations  prevent- 
ing the  meeting  of  "Sectaries"  except  in  their  own  churches. 
All  street  or  meetings  m  the  open  were  prohibited.  This 
was  a  severe  blow  to  the  Quakers  who  would  not  obey  the 
proclamations,  as  they  considered  it  a  moral  duty  to  ad- 
minister rebukes  wherever  they  were  needed. 

To  the  King,  it  was  represented  that  the  term  Quaker 
was  synonymous  with  treason,  and  that  they  were  a  menace 
to  the  nation.  The  Church  of  England  in  power,  and  all 
their  enemies  in  the  saddle,  the  Quakers  saw  the  begin- 
ning of  evil  days.  The  enemies  of  the  Quakers  now  raked 
the  ancient  laws  for  material  to  use  against  them,  of  which 
the  following  were  best  known : 

"An  Act  passed  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  imposed  a  fine 
of  one  shilling  on  every  person  over  sixteen  years  of  age, 
'for  each  Sunday  or  Holiday,'  that  he  absented  himself 
from  the  parish  church. 

"By  another  Act,  a  fine  of  twenty  pounds  per  month  was 
imposed  on  everyone,  over  the  age  mentioned,  who  com- 
mitted the  same  offence. 

"By  a  third  Act,  persons  convicted  of  similar  wilful  ab- 
sence from  church  were  made  liable  to  have  all  their  goods, 
10 


146  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


and  two-thirds  of  their  lands  seized,  and  sold  to  pay  the 
said  fine  of  twenty  pounds  per  month;  the  same  to  be  re- 
peated every  year,  so  long  as  they  may  forbear  to  be  present 
at  the  church. 

"By  another  Act,  passed  in  the  same  reign,  persons  so 
absenting  themselves  more  than  a  month,  without  lawful 
cause;  attending  a  conventicle,  or  persuading  another  to  do 
so,  'under  pretence  of  religion,'  are  made  liable  to  be  com- 
mitted to  prison,  and  be  there  kept  until  they  conform. 
And  if  they  do  not  so  conform  within  three  months — being 
so  required  by  a  Magistrate  in  open  Assize — they  abjure 
the  realm.  If  they  refuse  to  abjure  the  realm,  or  if  they  re- 
turn without  the  Queen's  license,  they  shall  be  deemed 
felons,  and  be  executed  without  benefit  of  clergy. 

''The  law  made  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  made  it  im- 
perative on  all  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  King,  denying  any 
right  of  the  Pope  to  interfere  in  the  kingdom,  or  any  power 
in  him  to  excommunicate  or  depose  the  King,  &c." 

With  copies  of  these  ancient  legends  in  the  hands  of 
every  justice,  judge  or  official,  there  is  little  wonder  that 
the  jails  were  again  filled  with  Quakers.  Affairs  rapidly 
assumed  a  menacing  form  for  the  latter,  though  many  of 
their  old  enemies,  as  Colonel  Hacker,  were  hanged  and  quar- 
tered, as  enemies  of  the  King. 

The  colonies  were  having  serious  trouble  with  the  Qua- 
kers. George  Fox  discussed  Quakerism  with  the  Jesuits, 
who  were  disposed  to  be  friendly,  and  this  was  held  up 
against  the  Friends,  many  claiming  that  the  Quakers  were 
Jesuits  in  disguise.* 

*Footnote. — There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  King's 
friendship  for  the  Quakers  was  influenced  by  the  fact  that  he  wished 
to  aid  the  Catholics,  and  by  according  the  Quakers  certain  privileges, 
would  divert  suspicion  from  his  real  object. 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


Despite  these  many  drawbacks  and  frequent  arrests,  the 
Quaker  movement  advanced.  The  first  Yearly  Meeting  in 
England  was  held  at  Skipton  in  1660,  and  in  1661  the  first 
Yearly  Meeting  was  held  in  London.  The  year  1662  was 
ushered  in  with  four  thousand  two  hundred  or  more  Qua- 
kers in  jail,  due  to  the  aggressive  campaign  for  personal 
and  religious  liberty;  though  in  most  instances  they  were 
jailed  for  non-essentials,  saying,  "thou"  and  "thee"  and 
persisting  in  refusing  to  take  the  oath.  The  latter  laid 
them  open  continually  to  the  charge  of  treason,  while  their 
refusal  to  pay  tithes  was  equivalent  to  a  jail  sentence. 

Sir  Henry  Vane  was  beheaded  at  the  Tower,  Lambert 
sentenced  to  life  imprisonment.  The  enemies  of  the  very 
memory  of  Cromwell  were  having  their  revenge,  and  they 
so  convinced  the  King  that  the  Quakers  were  a  menace,  that 
he  consented  to  an  Act  directed  against  them.  The  title 
of  the  Act  was  as  follows : 

"An  Act  for  preventing  mischiefs  and  dangers  that  may 
arise  by  certain  persons  called  Quakers  and  others  refusing 
to  take  lawful  oaths." 

This  was  notable  as  being  the  first  serious  governmental 
attack  on  the  Quakers  in  England. 

The  Act  v/as  as  follows: 

"L  Whereas  of  late  times,  certain  persons  under  the 
name  of  Quakers  and  other  names  of  separation,  have  taken 
up  and  maintained  sundry  dangerous  opinions  and  tenets, 
and  among  others,  that  the  taking  of  an  oath,  in  any  case 
whatsoever,  although  before  a  lawful  magistrate,  is  alto- 
gether unlawful,  and  contrary  to  the  word  of  God;  and  the 
said  persons  do  daily  refuse  to  take  an  oath,  though  lawfully 
tendered,  whereby  it  often  happens  that  the  truth  is  wholly 


148  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


suppressed,  and  the  administration  of  justice  much  ob- 
structed: and  whereas  the  said  persons  under  a  pretence 
of  religious  worship,  do  often  assemble  themselves  in  great 
numbers  in  several  parts  of  this  realm,  to  the  great  endan- 
gering of  the  public  peace  and  safety,  and  to  the  terror  of 
the  people,  by  maintaining  a  secret  and  strict  correspondence 
amongst  themselves,  and  in  the  meantime  separating  and 
dividing  themselves  from  the  rest  of  his  majesty's  good  and 
loyal  subjects,  and  from  the  public  congregations,  and  usual 
places  of  divine  worship. 

'TI.  For  the  redressing  therefore,  and  better  preventing 
the  many  mischiefs  and  dangers  that  do,  and  may  arise  by 
such  dangerous  tenets,  and  such  unlawful  assemblies,  (2) 
Be  it  enacted  by  the  king's  most  excellent  majesty,  by  and 
with  the  advice  of  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and 
commons  assembled  in  Parliament,  and  by  authority  of  the 
same,  that  if  any  person  or  persons,  who  maintain  that  the 
taking  of  an  oath,  in  any  case  soever,  (although  before  a 
lawful  magistrate,)  is  altogether  unlawful,  and  contrary  to 
the  word  of  God,  from  and  after  the  four  and  twentieth 
day  of  March,  in  this  present  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  sixty-one,  shall  wilfully  and  obsti- 
nately refuse  to  take  an  oath,  where,  by  the  laws  of  the 
realm  he  or  she  is,  or  shall  be  bound  to  take  the  same, 
being  lawfully  and  duly  tendered,  (3)  or  shall  endeavor  to 
persuade  any  other  person,  to  whom  any  such  oath  shall 
in  like  manner  be  duly  and  lawfully  tendered,  to  refuse  and 
forbear  the  taking  of  the  same,  (4)  or  shall  by  printing, 
writing,  or  otherwise,  go  about  to  maintain  and  defend 
that  the  taking  of  an  oath  in  any  case  whatsoever,  is  al- 
together unlawful;  (5)  and  if  the  said  persons,  commonly 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  149 


called  Quakers,  shall  at  any  time  after  the  said  four  and 
twentieth  day  of  March,  depart  from  the  places  of  their 
several  habitations,  and  assemble  themselves  to  the  num- 
ber of  five  or  more,  of  the  age  of  sixteen  years  or  upwards, 
at  any  one  time,  in  any  place  under  pretence  of  joining  in 
a  religious  worship,  not  authorized  by  the  laws  of  this 
realm,  (6)  that  then  in  all  and  every  such  case,  the  party 
so  offending,  being  lawfully  convicted,  by  verdict  of  twelve 
men,  or  by  his  own  confession,  or  by  the  notorious  evi- 
dence of  the  fact,  shall  lose  and  forfeit  to  the  king's  majesty, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  for  the  first  offence,  such  sum  as 
shall  be  imposed  upon  him  or  her,  not  exceeding  five 
pounds;  (7)  and  if  any  person  or  persons,  being  once  con- 
victed of  any  such  offence,  shall  again  offend  therein,  and 
shall  in  form  aforesaid  be  thereof  lawfully  convicted,  shall 
for  the  second  offence  forfeit  to  the  king,  or  sovereign  lord, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  such  sum  as  shall  be  imposed  upon 
him  or  her,  not  exceeding  ten  pounds:  (8)  the  said  re- 
spective penalties  to  be  levied  by  distress,  and  sale  of  the 
parties  goods  so  convicted,  by  warrant  of  the  parties  before 
whom  they  shall  be  so  convicted,  rendering  the  overplus  to 
the  owners,  if  any  be:  (9)  and  for  want  of  such  distress, 
or  non-payment  of  the  said  penalty  within  one  week  after 
such  conviction,  that  then  the  parties  so  convicted  shall  for 
the  first  offence  be  committed  to  the  common  jail,  or  house 
of  correction,  for  the  space  of  three  months;  and  for  the 
second  offence  during  six  months,  without  bail  or  main- 
prize,  there  to  be  kept  to  hard  labor;  (10)  which  said 
moneys  so  to  be  levied,  shall  be  paid  to  such  person  or  per- 
sons, as  shall  be  appointed  by  those  before  whom  they  shall 
be  convicted,  to  be  employed  for  the  increase  of  the  stock 


150  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


of  the  house  of  correction,  to  which  they  shall  be  com- 
mitted, and  providing  materials  to  set  them  on  work :  ( 1 1 ) 
and  if  any  person,  after  he  in  form  aforesaid,  hath  been 
twice  convicted,  of  any  of  the  said  offenses  shall  offend  the 
third  time,  and  be  thereof,  in  form  aforesaid,  lawfully  con- 
victed, that  then  every  person  so  offending,  and  convicted, 
shall  for  his  or  her  third  offense,  abjure  the  realm;  or  other- 
wise it  shall,  and  may  be  lawful  to,  and  for  his  majesty, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  to  give  order  and  to  cause  him, 
her,  or  them,  to  be  transported  in  any  ship  or  ships,  to 
any  of  his  majesty's  plantations  beyond  the  seas. 

"III.  And  it  is  ordained  and  enacted  by  the  authority 
aforesaid,  that  all  and  every  justice  of  Oyer  and  Terminer, 
justices  of  assize,  and  jail-delivery,  and  the  justices  of  the 
peace,  shall  have  full  power  and  authority,  in  every  of  their 
open  and  general  quarter  sessions,  to  inquire,  hear,  and  de- 
termine all  and  every  the  said  offences,  within  the  limits 
of  their  commission  to  them  directed,  and  to  make  process 
for  the  execution  of  the  same,  as  they  may  do  against  any 
person  being  indicted  before  them  of  trespass,  or  lawfully 
convicted  thereof. 

"IV.  And  be  it  also  enacted,  that  it  shall  and  may  be 
lawful  to,  and  for  any  justice  of  the  peace,  mayor,  or  other 
chief  officer,  of  any  corporation,  within  their  several  juris- 
dictions, to  commit  to  the  common  jail,  or  bind  over,  with 
sufficient  sureties  to  the  quarter  sessions,  any  person  or  per- 
sons offending  in  the  premises,  in  order  to  his  or  their  con- 
viction aforesaid. 

"V.  Provided  always,  and  be  it  hereby  further  enacted, 
that  if  any  of  the  said  persons  shall,  after  such  conviction 
as  aforesaid,  take  such  oath  or  oaths,  for  which  he  or  she 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  151 


stands  committed,  and  also  give  security  that  he  or  she  shall 
for  the  time  to  come  forbear  to  meet  in  any  such  unlawful 
assembly  as  aforesaid,  that  then,  and  from  thenceforth, 
such  person  and  persons  shall  be  discharged  from  all  the 
penalties  aforesaid;  anything  in  this  act  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

"VL  Provided  always,  and  be  it  ordained  and  enacted 
by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  all  and  singular  lords  of 
the  Parliament,  for  every  third  offence  committed  against 
the  tenor  of  this  act,  shall  be  tried  by  their  peers,  and  not 
otherwise." 

This  was  followed  by  numerous  arrests  and  the  outlook 
for  Quakers  was  more  than  deplorable. 

Yet  Burrough,  Fox  and  all  the  leaders  made  an  aggres- 
sive fight  for  their  liberties.  Prisons  in  London  and  with- 
out were  crowded  with  men  and  women.  In  Cheshire, 
sixty-eight  Quakers  were  confined  in  a  room  so  small  that 
they  could  not  sit  down.  Many  died.  In  London  five 
hundreds  were  confined,  beaten  and  abused  with  every  evi- 
dence of  fury.  The  King  protested  that  it  was  not  his  fault, 
but  he  did  not  stop  it.  All  the  great  leaders  among  Qua- 
kers were  now  active,  Edward  Burrough,  John  Burnyeat, 
A.  Jaffray,  William  Edmundson,  William  Dewsbury,  Rob- 
ert Lodge,  Thomas  Loe,  Isaac  Pennington,  William  Caton, 
William  Ames  and  many  more,  appealing  to  the  King  and 
people,  to  the  authorities  in  England,  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land, where  their  meetings  were  established.  Appealing, 
praying,  despite  beatings,  jail  terms  in  filthy  dungeons,  at- 
tacks of  every  possible  kind ;  yet  in  all  the  records  of  Eng- 
land, during  the  Restoration,  there  is  not  an  instance  of  the 
Quakers  having  struck  a  blow  or  having  comported  them- 


152  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


selves  in  any  objectionable  way.  They,  literally,  turned 
the  other  cheek.  If  they  were  jailed,  they  prayed  for  the 
jailer  and  those  in  authority  and  worked  for  their  salva- 
tion. 

An  Act  of  Parliament  was  secured  by  their  enemies, 
forcing  all  who  held  office  to  take  the  sacrament  according 
to  the  rites  of  the  Episcopal  church,  its  object  being  to  shut 
out  the  Quakers  and  other  Dissenters  from  office  to  better 
control  the  situation,  and  crush  them.  Troops  were  sent 
to  the  Bull  and  Mouth  meeting  in  London,  where  they  beat 
the  devotees,  hauled  them  out,  inflicting  terrible  outrages 
upon  them.  This  was  repeated  in  other  meetings,  all  given 
in  detail  in  the  contemporaneous  books  of  the  day. 

Richard  Hubberthorn  and  Edward  Burrough,  ministers, 
with  twenty  more,  died  in  jail;  Burrough  was  the  Friend 
who  had  been  assured  protection  by  the  King.  It  is  true 
that  Charles  inquired  after  him  and  ordered  his  release, 
and  that  with  the  consent  of  the  Privy  Council  he  issued 
a  proclamation  renewing  the  assurances  of  fair  treatment, 
of  his  Breda  declaration,  promising  also  that  Parliament 
would  take  the  matter  under  consideration.  This  was  done, 
but  to  the  amazement  of  the  Quakers,  Parliament  refused 
to  act,  repudiating  the  Breda  promise  of  the  King.  As  the 
latter  was  dependent  upon  Parliament  for  funds  to  meet 
his  enormous  financial  embarrassments,  he  was  forced, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  feelings  of  friendship,  to  ac- 
quiesce; though  his  effort  to  save  the  Quakers  had  its  moral 
effect  on  the  inhuman  judges  and  other  officers,  who  were 
hounding  the  helpless  follov/ers  of  Fox. 

1662  was  a  memorable  year  in  the  history  of 
Quakerism.     Four  thousand  two  hundred  Quakers  were 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  153 


in  jail,  thousands  assaulted,  many  killed,  scores  so  injured 
from  vile  jails  and  brutal  assaults  that  they  died.  Hun- 
dreds were  robbed  and  ruined  financially,  all  the  result  of 
the  imposition  of  the  Quaker  Act,  the  Act  of  uniformity, 
enforcing  the  use  of  the  prayer  book  and  the  ejectment  of 
non-conformist  ministers. 

The  year  1663  saw  the  passage  of  the  Conventicle  Act 
forbidding  all  religious  assemblages,  except  those  allowed 
by  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  arrest  of  George  Fox 
and  his  incarceration  in  Lancaster  Castle  for  a  year  and  a 
half  from  which,  had  he  not  been  a  physical  marvel,  he 
never  would  have  escaped,  so  horrible  beyond  description 
were  the  conditions  here.  From  this  place  he  was  sent  to 
Scarborough.  Even  here,  the  wit  of  Fox  was  exhibited. 
The  place  was  so  smoky  that  he  could  not  see  across  the 
room,  and  when  Sir  Jordan  Crosland,  the  Papist  Governor, 
came  groping  in  to  inspect  him  and  asked  how  he  liked  it, 
the  wily  Fox  replied,  that  judging  from  the  smoke  and 
fumes  it  must  be  Sir  John's  ' 'Purgatory. "  Fox  was  im- 
mured in  this  particular  purgatory  a  year  when  he  was 
released  by  an  order  from  the  King,  through  the  interven- 
tion of  many  Friends,  among  whom  was  John  Whitehead. 

Margaret  Fell,  who  later  married  George  Fox,  was  ar- 
rested at  about  the  same  time  for  allowing  Quakers  to  meet 
in  her  house,  Swarthmore  Hall.  She  plead  her  own  case, 
but  was  sent  to  Lancaster  Castle  and  confined  in  a  room 
in  which  the  rain  fell.  Here  this  refined,  cultivated  and 
educated  English  woman  of  the  finest  type,  was  imprisoned 
for  four  years.  Her  crime  consisted  in  advocating  the  con- 
ditions which  hold  among  men  in  1913.  Quakers  were 
now  banished  on  charges  so  puerile  that  the  sea  captains  re- 


1 54  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


ceiving  them  often  landed  them  privately,  refusing  to  be 
a  party  to  the  outrage. 

About  this  time,  George  Bishop  wrote  to  the  King  and 
Parliament,  "meddle  not  with  my  people  because  of  their 
conscience  to  me,  and  banish  them  not  out  of  the  nation 
because  of  their  conscience;  for  if  ye  do,  I  will  send  my 
plagues  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord. 

Written  in  obedience  to  the  Lord,  by  his  servant. 

George  Bishop." 

It  has  been  referred  to  previously,  that  the  Quakers  were 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  those  who  persecuted  them 
would  be  overtaken  with  retribution.  There  is  repeated 
reference  to  this  in  contemporaneous  works.  The  threat 
of  George  Bishop  was  recalled  and  created  consternation  not 
long  afterwards,  when  after  continued  and  shameful  per- 
secution of  Friends,  London  was  afflicted  by  the  breaking 
out  of  the  plague.  It  was,  of  course,  purely  circumstantial ; 
but  thousands,  especially  Puritans  and  Quakers,  took  it  as 
an  answer  to  the  wrath  of  Bishop  and  the  insolence  and 
brutality  with  which  his  petition  was  received  by  the  King. 
While  the  authorities  were  sending  Quakers  out  of  the 
country  and  shipping  them  to  Jamaica  and  Barbadoes, 
thousands  of  citizens  and  officers  were  dropping  dead  in 
the  streets.  Eight  thousand  died  in  a  single  week,  and  be- 
fore the  end,  one-seventh  of  the  City  of  London  had  been 
wiped  out  of  existence. 

"Now,"  writes  Sewell,  the  Dutch  Historian  of  the  Qua- 
kers, "the  prediction  of  George  Bishop  was  fulfilled;  and 
the  plagues  of  the  Lord  fell  so  heavily  on  the  persecutors, 
that  the  eagerness  to  banish  the  Quakers  and  send  them 
away  began  to  abate."    This  in  all  sincerity,  and  lest  the 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  155 


reader  smile  at  the  credulity  of  these  people,  it  is  well  to 
remember  the  extraordinary  superstitions  which  prevail  in 
all  countries,  sects  and  conditions  of  men  and  women,  and 
society  to-day. 

The  King,  whose  religion  was  of  a  hazy  and  nondescript 
character,  with  much  elasticity  and  width  of  range,  was  not 
disturbed  by  the  prophecies  of  Bishop,  as  when  the  ominous 
foreboding  was  repeated  to  him,  while  the  hundreds  were 
dropping  dead  hourly,  he  displayed  his  wit  by  asking  one 
of  his  courtiers  whether  any  of  the  Quakers  themselves  had 
died  of  the  plague ;  and  when  he  heard  the  affirmative  reply, 
laughed  lightly  and  shrugged  his  shoulders.  This  might 
have  been  considered  a  staggering  blow,  but  the  Quakers 
were  always  ready  with  Biblical  quotations:  one  they  used 
being  the  words  of  Solomon,  "There  is  one  event  to  the 
righteous  and  to  the  wicked  ;"  and  Job's  *'He  destroyeth  the 
perfect  and  the  wicked."  These  were,  metaphorically, 
hurled  by  Quakers  at  his  Majesty,  who,  aside  from  being 
languidly  clever,  was  one  of  the  best  friends  the  Quakers 
had  among  Royalty. 

In  these  early  days  there  was  apparently  no  attempt  on 
the  part  of  George  Fox  to  organize  a  society  or  a  new  sect 
or  religion.  In  other  words,  his  prime  object  was  to  re- 
buke the  sinners  of  the  world,  not  add  to  its  militant  re- 
ligious bodies;  but  organization  came  as  a  natural 
sequence  and  meetings  of  various  kinds  were  formed,  now 
at  Waltham  and  Shackelworth  and  many  in  London.  All 
joined  in  raising  funds  to  aid  in  the  release  of  Friends,  as 
there  were  in  the  fifth  month  of  1665,  the  year  of  the  Great 
Plague,  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  and  women  in  jail 
awaiting  banishment  as  Quakers,   while  Newgate  and 


156  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


Bridewell  were  also  crowded  with  Friends  imprisoned  on 
the  first  offense.  The  Quakers  were  crowded  on  plague- 
laden  vessels,  and  scenes  of  horror  enacted  beyond  belief, 
but  none  of  these  terrors  discouraged  them.  They  increased 
in  numbers  and  in  1 666,  David  Barclay,  who  was  to  become 
a  distinguished  Friend,  joined  forces  with  them.  Another 
distinguished  Quaker  was  Baron  Swinton  of  Swinton,  an 
ancestor  of  Walter  Scott.  David  Barclay  was  imprisoned 
in  Edinburgh  Castle,  and  his  brilliant  son  was  a  victim  of 
many  violent  assaults. 

Another  singular  prophecy  was  made  in  1666.  A  Quaker, 
named  Thomas  Ibbit  from  Huntington,  visited  London, 
and  as  a  "sign"'  to  arouse  the  people  from  their  sensual  and 
unholy  lives  passed  through  the  streets,  prophesying  a  judg- 
ment of  fire.  Soldiers  stopped  him  and  asked  what  he 
meant.  He  replied,  that  he  had  had  a  vision  of  a  fire  and 
felt  called  upon  to  warn  the  people  of  their  impending 
doom.  Before  Ibbit  left  London,  or  two  days  after  his 
prophesy,  London  was  overwhelmed  by  the  greatest  fire 
in  all  its  history.  Thirteen  thousand  two  hundred  dwelling 
houses  were  destroyed,  eighty-nine  churches  and  other  new 
public  buildings.  The  Quakers  were  great  losers,  which 
made  the  King  smile  again,  but  the  terrible  calamity  for 
the  time  stopped  the  persecutions.  George  Fox  was  re- 
leased from  Scarboro  Castle  after  three  years  imprisonment, 
the  day  before  this  holocaust.  He  was  practically  a  physi- 
cal wreck ;  but  he  began  his  ministrations  and  was  in  London 
while  it  was  burning.  He  considered  it  a  retribution,  and 
says,  "I  saw  the  city  dying  according  as  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  to  me  several  years  before."  The  Bull  and 
Mouth  meeting  was  destroyed  in  this  fir^^,  and  scores  of 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  157 


meeting  places  and  houses  of  Friends  were  wiped  out  of  ex- 
istence. 

It  became  evident  to  the  Quakers  who  had  been  preach- 
ing in  almost  every  town  and  city  in  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland  and  Wales,  that  they  had  the  rudiments  of  an  or- 
ganization, which  but  needed  merging  to  make  a  homo- 
genious  unit.  As  a  result  of  this,  came  the  first  at- 
tempt to  establish  a  uniform  system  of  church  government. 
This  began  in  London.  George  Fox  writes  in  his  Journal, 
"Then  was  I  moved  of  the  Lord  to  recommend  the  setting 
up  of  five  monthly  meetings  of  men  and  women  in  the  City 
of  London,  besides  the  women's  meeting  and  the  quarterly 
meetings,  to  take  care  of  God's  glory,  and  to  admonish  or 
exhort  such  as  walked  disorderly  and  carelessly,  and  not 
according  to  truth.  For  whereas  Friends  had  only  Quar- 
terly Meetings,  now  Truth  was  spread  and  Friends  grown 
more  numerous,  I  was  moved  to  recommend  the  sitting  of 
Monthly  Meetings  throughout  the  nation.  And  the  Lord 
opened  to  me  what  I  must  do,  and  how  the  men's  and 
women's  Monthly  and  Quarterly  meetings  should  be  or- 
dered and  established  in  this  and  other  nations;  and  that  I 
should  write  to  those  where  I  came  not,  to  do  the  same." 

Here  began  the  system  which,  undoubtedly,  resulted  in 
the  extraordinary  church  body  or  religious  sect  known  to 
themselves  as  the  Society  of  Friends,  which,  judged  rigidly 
on  its  merits  as  a  method  or  organized  plan  to  eliminate  evil, 
is  without  parallel  in  the  world. 

The  reader  will  understand  my  meaning,  when  I  state 
that  I  examined  some  years  ago  the  private  records  of  a 
large  meeting  of  Quakers  from  1670  to  1760  or  there- 
abouts.   It  contained  the  record  of  every  admonishment  to 


1 58  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


members,  of  every  crime  committed  by  Quakers  during  that 
time  known  to  the  meeting  or  any  of  its  many  hundred 
members.  During  this  period  numbers  of  Friends  were 
disowned  for  marrying  outside  of  the  meeting;  but  as  for 
the  crimes  of  to-day,  they  were  not  to  be  found.  In  all 
that  period,  there  were  but  three  names  whose  owners  had 
been  considered  disgraced;  one  was  for  failing  in  business 
and  involving  others;  the  other  two  were  for  over-indulgence 
in  spirituous  liquors.  Such  a  record  cannot  be  found  in  any 
other  religious  sect  in  the  world,  and  it  was  not  the  excep- 
tion in  all  Friends  communities  in  any  land  and  America 
then,  nor  is  it  to-day. 

The  general  meetings  of  Friends  had  long  been 
held  and  long  been  referred  to.  One  was  at  Swan- 
nington  in  1654,  another  at  Edge  Hill,  1656,  Balby  1658. 
George  Fox  refers  to  the  Skipton  meeting  in  1660  as  fol- 
lows: "To  this  Meeting  came  many  Friends  out  of  most 
parts  of  the  nation;  for  it  was  about  business  relating  to 
the  church,  both  in  this  nation  and  beyond  the  seas.  Sev- 
eral years  before,  when  I  was  in  the  north,  I  was  moved  to 
recommend  to  Friends  the  setting  up  of  this  Meeting  for 
that  service;  for  many  Friends  suffered  in  divers  parts  of 
the  nation,  their  goods  were  taken  from  them  contrary  to 
law,  and  they  understood  not  how  to  help  themselves,  or 
where  to  seek  redress.  But  after  this  Meeting  was  set  up, 
several  Friends  who  had  been  Magistrates,  and  others  who 
understood  something  of  the  law,  came  hither,  and  were 
able  to  inform  Friends,  and  to  assist  them  in  gathering  up 
the  sufferings,  that  they  might  be  laid  before  the  Justices, 
Judges,  or  Parliament.  This  meeting  had  stood  several 
years,  and  divers  Justices  and  Captains  had  come  to  break 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  159 


it  up;  but  when  they  understood  the  business  the  Friends 
met  about,  and  saw  Friends'  books,  and  accounts  of  col- 
lections for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  how  we  took  care  one 
county  to  help  another,  and  to  help  our  Friends  beyond 
the  sea,  and  provide  for  our  poor  that  none  of  them  should 
be  chargeable  to  their  parishes,  &c.,  the  Justices  and  officers 
confessed  that  we  did  their  work,  and  would  pass  away 
peaceably  and  lovingly,  'commending  Friends'  practice.' 
Sometimes  there  would  come  two  hundred  poor  of  other 
people,  and  wait  till  the  meeting  was  done,  for  all  the  coun- 
try knew  we  met  about  the  poor,  and  after  the  meeting, 
Friends  would  send  to  the  bakers  for  bread,  and  give  every 
one  of  those  poor  people  a  loaf,  how  many  soever  there  were 
of  them;  for  we  were  taught  'to  do  good  unto  all,  though 
especially  to  the  household  of  faith.'  " 

Originally  the  Quarterly  Meeting  was  designed  to  at- 
tend to  marriages,  births,  the  children  of  the  Society,  the 
raising  of  funds  for  widows,  or  those  imprisoned,  or  any 
business  requiring  immediate  attention,  generally  relegated 
to-day  to  the  monthly  meeting. 

In  1668,  George  Fox  writes,  'The  Men's  Monthly  Meet- 
ings were  settled  throughout  the  nation.  I  wrote  also  on 
to  Ireland,  Scotland,  Holland,  Barbadoes  and  several  parts 
of  America,  advising  Friends  to  settle  their  men's  monthly 
meetings  in  these  countries,  for  they  had  their  Quarterly 
Meetings  before."  There  was  another  supervisory  meet- 
ing called  the  "Two  Weeks  Meeting"  at  which  various 
minor  matters  were  arranged,  as  discipline  and  oversight  of 
the  various  London  meetings.  Some  of  these  meetings  were 
composed  of  women,  who  visited  the  sick  in  jail,  looked 
after  the  widows  and  orphans. 


i6o  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


The  "Yearly  Meeting"  had  not  yet  appeared,  though  its 
equivalent,  "The  General  Meeting  of  Ministers"  met  in 
London  in  1668  and  again  in  1672.  This  meeting  gave 
advice  to  the  smaller  ones  and  to  members,  and  one  of  its 
epistles  reads,  "That  for  the  better  ordering,  managing  and 
regulating  the  public  affairs  of  Friends,  relating  to  the 
truth  and  service  thereof,  there  be  a  general  meeting  of 
Friends  held  at  London  once  a  year,  in  the  week  called 
Whitsun-week;  to  consist  of  six  Friends  for  the  city  of 
London,  three  for  the  City  of  Bristol,  two  of  the  Town  of 
Colchester,  and  one  or  two  from  each  of  the  counties  of 
England  and  Wales."  This  was  the  first  Yearly  Meeting, 
tho  it  was  discontinued  until  "Friends  in  God's  wisdom  shall 
see  a  further  reason." 

The  General  Meetings  were  continued,  and  George  Fox, 
in  referring  to  them  said  in  1674:  "Let  your  General  As- 
semblies of  the  Ministers,  examine  as  it  was  at  the  first, 
whether  all  the  ministers  that  go  forth  into  the  counties, 
do  walk  as  becomes  the  gospel;  for  that  you  know  was  one 
end  of  that  meeting,  to  prevent  and  take  away  scandal, 
and  to  examine  if  all  who  preach  Christ  Jesus,  do  keep  to 
his  government,  and  in  the  order  of  the  gospel,  and  to  ex- 
hort them  that  do  not." 

We  next  hear  of  the  "Yearly  Meeting"  in  1677,  when 
they  sent  an  invitation  to  the  Quarterly  to  send  representa- 
tives to  be  held  at  the  same  period  the  following  year  in 
London,  the  object  being,  "For  the  more  general  service  of 
truth  and  the  body  of  Friends,  in  all  those  things  wherein 
we  may  be  capable  to  serve  one  another  in  love."  At  the 
termination  of  this  meeting,  the  call  to  meet  again  the  fol- 
lowing year  was  repeated;  and  from  this  time,  the  Yearly 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  161 


Meeting  has  always  been  held  among  Friends  all  over  the 
world,  and  has  been  the  governing  power,  exercising  full 
supervisory,  moral  and  legislative  control  over  all  other 
meetings  and  doings  in  the  Society.  The  following  is  from 
the  preamble:  "The  intent  and  design  of  our  annual  as- 
semblies, in  their  first  constitution,  was  for  a  great  and 
weighty  oversight  and  Christian  care  of  the  affairs  of  the 
churches,  pertaining  to  our  holy  profession  and  Christian 
communion;  that  good  order,  true  love,  unity  and  concord 
may  be  faithfully  followed  and  maintained  among  us/' 
For  many  years,  the  Yearly  Meeting  was  composed  of  ap- 
pointed delegates  or  representatives.  Then  a  change  was 
made  and  the  meeting  was  composed  of  members  of  the 
General  and  Quarterly  meetings  in  Great  Britain,  repre- 
sentatives being  also  sent  to  it  from  the  semi-annual  meet- 
ings in  Ireland.  As  many  cases  of  discipline  came  up  at 
the  Quarterly  and  Monthly  meetings,  members  could  ap- 
peal to  the  Yearly  Meetings,  if  they  so  desired,  the  latter 
being  supreme  and  decisive,  a  court  of  last  appeal. 

At  the  time,  when  the  Friends  were  being  persecuted,  a 
special  committee  was  formed  to  investigate  the  cases  of 
Friends  who  were  thrown  into  jail  and  to  intercede  for 
them.  This  committee  was  always  in  session  and  met  in 
London,  really  representing  the  yearly  meeting  between  the 
dates  of  its  sessions.  The  meetings  of  this  committee  be- 
came known  in  1677  as  "The  Meeting  for  Sufferings." 

In  this  way,  slowly  and  as  the  result  of  demand,  the 
framework  of  the  Society  of  Friends  rose  and  assumed  form, 
and  later  rules  and  regulations  governing  personal  behavior 
and  action  were  made.  Naturally,  the  ideas  of  George  Fox 
were  highly  esteemed.  In  1668,  he  issued  a  paper  of  sug- 
11 


i62  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


gestions  and  instructions,  which  can  be  found  in  the  minutes 
of  many  old  meetings.  It  was  particularly  interesting,  as 
a  part  of  the  peculiar  and  efficient  machinery  of  the  new 
Society  devised  to  spiritualize  its  members  and  eliminate  evil 
from  their  midst.  It  was  this  constant  watchfulness  that 
made  the  Friends  a  remarkable  people  for  their  consistency 
and  faith  in  any  time.  It  was  practically  a  system  of  nat- 
ural elimination.  If  a  member  could  not  live  according  to 
the  ethics  of  the  Society,  he  or  she  was  labored  with. 
Everything  was  done  that  could  be  done  by  friends  and 
members  of  special  committees,  and  then  if  there  was  no 
hope,  as  a  last  regrettable  resort,  the  offending  member  was 
cut  off  or  disowned.  In  the  early  days,  and  even  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  this  was  strictly  carried  out,  and  hun- 
dreds of  Friends  were  disowned  for  such  failures  as  marry- 
ing out  of  the  Society  or  digressions  in  dress  and  other  non- 
essentials. 

The  essence  of  the  Fox  document,  defining  the  duties  of 
Friends  and  their  obligations,  is  as  follows : 

"Friends,  Fellowship  must  be  in  the  Spirit,  and  all 
Friends  must  know  one  another  in  the  Spirit  and  Power  of 
God. 

"First: — In  all  the  meetings  of  the  country,  two  or  three 
being  gathered  from  them  to  go  to  the  General  Meetings, 
for  to  give  notice  one  to  another,  if  there  be  any  that  walk 
not  in  the  truth,  and  have  been  convinced  and  gone  from 
truth,  and  so  dishonor  God,  that  some  may  be  ordered  from 
the  meeting  to  go  and  exhort  such,  and  bring  to  the  next 
General  Meeting  what  they  say. 

"Secondly: — If  any  that  profess  the  truth,  follow  pleas- 
ures, drunkenness,  gamings  or  are  not  faithful  in  their  call- 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  163 


ings  and  dealings,  nor  honest  nor  just,  but  run  into  debt, 
and  so  bring  a  scandal  upon  the  truth,  Friends  may  give 
notice  to  the  General  Meeting  (if  there  be  any  such), 
and  some  may  be  ordered  to  go  and  exhort  them,  and  bring 
in  their  answer  next  General  Meeting. 

"Thirdly: — And  if  any  go  disorderly  together  in  mar- 
riage, contrary  to  practice  of  the  holy  men  of  God,  and  as- 
semblies of  the  righteous  in  all  ages;  who  declared  it  in  the 
assemblies  of  the  righteous,  when  they  took  one  another; 
(all  things  being  clear,)  and  they  both  being  free  from  any 
other,  and  when  they  do  go  together  ,and  take  one  another, 
let  there  not  be  less  than  a  dozen  Friends  and  relations  pres- 
ent (according  to  your  usual  order)  having  first  acquainted 
the  men's  meeting,  and  they  have  clearness  and  unity  with 
them;  and  that  it  may  be  recorded  in  a  book  according  to 
the  word  and  commandment  of  the  Lord;  and  if  any  walk 
contrar}^  to  the  truth  herein,  let  some  be  ordered  to  speak 
to  them  and  give  notice  thereof  to  the  next  General  Meet- 
ing. 

"Sixthly: — And  all  such  as  marry  by  the  Priests  of  Baal, 
who  are  the  rough  hands  of  Esau,  and  fists  of  wickedness 
and  bloody  hands,  and  who  have  had  their  hands  in  the 
blood  of  our  brethren,  and  are  the  cause  of  all  the  banish- 
ment of  our  brethren,  and  have  spoiled  so  many  of  their 
goods,  casting  into  prison,  and  keep  many  hundreds  at  this 
-day — such  as  go  to  them  for  wives  or  husbands,  must  come 
to  judgment,  and  condemmation  of  that  spirit  that  led  them 
to  Baal,  and  of  Baal's  priests  also;  or  else  Friends  that 
keep  their  habitations  must  write  against  them  and  Baal 
both;  for  from  Genesis  to  the  Revelations  you  never  read 
of  any  priest  that  married  people;  but  it  is  God's  ordinance. 


i64  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


and  whom  God  joins  together  let  no  man  put  asunder;  and 
they  took  one  another  in  the  assemblies  of  the  righteous 
when  all  things  were  clear.  Therefore,  let  all  these  things 
be  inquired  into  and  brought  to  the  General  Meeting,  and 
from  thence  some  ordered  to  go  to  them  and  to  return  what 
they  say  at  your  next  meeting.  And  all  these,  before  they 
or  any  of  them  be  left  as  heathens  or  written  against,  let 
them  be  three  or  four  times  gone  to;  that  they  may  have 
Gospel  order,  so  that  if  it  be  possible  they  may  come  to 
that  which  did  convince  them,  to  condemn  their  unrighteous 
doings  that  so  you  may  not  leave  a  hoof  in  Egypt. 

"Eighthly: — And  in  all  your  meetings  let  notice  be  given 
to  the  General  Meetings  of  all  the  poor;  and  when  you  have 
heard  that  there  are  many  more  poor  belong  to  one  meet- 
ing than  to  another  and  that  meeting  thereby  burdened  and 
oppressed,  let  the  rest  of  the  meetings  assist  and  help  them ; 
so  that  you  may  ease  one  another,  and  help  to  bear  one 
another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ,  and  so  see 
that  nothing  be  lacking,  according  to  the  apostle's  words. 
Mark,  nothing  lacking,  then  all  is  well.  ...  So  there 
is  not  to  be  a  beggar  now  amongst  the  Christians,  according 
to  the  law  of  Jesus,  as  there  was  not  to  be  any  amongst  the 
Jews,  according  to  the  law  of  God. 

"Tenthly: — And  that  notice  be  taken  of  all  evil  speakers, 
back-biters,  slanderers  and  foolish  talkers  and  idle  jesters; 
for  all  these  things  corrupt  good  manners,  and  are  not  ac- 
cording to  the  saints  and  holy  ones;  whose  words  are  sea- 
soned with  salt,  ministering  grace  to  the  hearers. 

"Eleventhly: — And  all  such  who  are  tale  carriers  and 
railers,  whose  work  is  to  sow  dissension,  are  to  be  reproved 
and  admonished ;  for  such  do  not  bring  people  into  the  unity 


UNDER  THE  RESTORATION  165 


of  the  Spirit,  but  by  such  doings  come  to  lose  their  own 
conditions. 

"Twelfthly: — And  all  such  as  go  up  and  down  to  cheat 
by  borrowing  and  getting  money  of  Friends  in  by-places 
(and  have  cheated  several). 

"Thirteenthly : — And  if  there  happen  any  differences  be- 
tween Friend  and  Friend  of  any  matters,  and  if  it  cannot 
be  ended  before  the  General  Meeting,  let  half  a  dozen 
Friends  from  the  General  Meeting  be  ordered  to  put  a  steady 
end  thereto:  that  justice  may  be  speedily  done,  that  no  dif- 
ference may  rest  or  remain  amongst  any:  (and  let  your 
General  Meeting  be  once  in  every  quarter  of  a  year,  and  to 
be  appointed  at  such  places  as  may  be  most  convenient  for 
the  most  of  Friends  to  meet  in).  So  that  the  house  may 
be  cleansed  of  all  that  is  contrary  to  purity,  virtue,  life, 
light,  and  spirit  and  power  of  God.  So  that  Friends  may 
not  be  one  another's  sorrow  and  trouble,  but  one  another's 
joy  and  crown  in  the  Lord. 

"Fourteenthly : — And  all  Friends  see  that  your  children 
be  trained  up  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord ;  in  soberness,  and  holi- 
ness, and  righteousness,  temperance  and  meekness,  and  gen- 
tleness, lowliness  and  modesty  in  their  apparel  and  carriage ; 
and  so  to  exhort  your  children  and  families  in  the  truth; 
that  the  Lord  may  be  glorified  in  all  your  families;  and 
teach  your  children  when  they  are  young,  then  will  they 
remember  it  when  they  are  old,  according  to  Solomon.  So 
that  your  children  may  be  a  blessing  to  you  and  not  a  curse. 

"Sixteenthly : — And  also  that  Friends  do  buy  necessary 
books  for  the  registering  of  births,  marriages,  and  burials, 
as  the  holy  men  of  God  did  of  old ;  as  you  may  read  through 
the  Scriptures;  that  every  one  may  be  ready  to  give  a  testi- 


i66  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


mony  and  certificate  thereof,  if  need  require,  or  any  be 
called  thereunto. 

' 'Seventeen thly: — And  also  that  the  sufferings  of  Friends 
(of  all  kinds  of  sufferings)  in  all  the  counties  be  gathered 
up  and  put  together,  and  sent  to  the  General  Meeting,  and 
so  sent  to  London,  to  Ellis  Hookes;  that  nothing  of  the 
memorial  of  the  blood  and  cruel  sufferings  of  your  brethren 
be  lost,  which  shall  stand  as  a  testimony  against  the  mur- 
dering spirit  of  this  world,  and  be  to  the  praise  of  the  ever- 
lasting power  of  the  Lord  in  the  ages  to  come;  who  sup- 
ported and  upheld  them  in  such  hardships  and  cruelties; 
who  is  God  over  all,  blessed  forever.  Amen. 

"Eighteenthly: — And  let  inquiry  be  made  concerning  all 
such  as  do  pay  tithes,  which  makes  void  the  testimony  and 
sufferings  of  our  brethren  who  have  suffered,  many  of  them 
to  death;  by  which  many  widows  and  fatherless  have  been 
made,  and  which  is  contrar)'^  to  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  martyrs,  and  contrary  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  righteous  in  this  present  age:  all  such  are  to  be  in- 
quired into,  and  to  be  exhorted. 

"Dear  Friends  be  faithful  in  the  service  of  God,  and  mind 
the  Lord's  business,  and  be  diligent,  and  bring  the  power  of 
the  Lord  over  all  those  that  have  gainsaid  it;  and  all  you 
that  be  faithful  go  to  visit  them  all  that  have  been  con- 
vinced, from  house  to  house,  that  if  it  be  possible  you  may 
not  leave  a  hoof  in  Egypt;  and  so  every  one  go  seek  the 
lost  sheep  and  bring  him  home  on  your  backs  to  the  fold, 
and  there  will  be  more  joy  of  that  one  sheep  than  the  ninety- 
nine  in  the  fold. 

"And  my  dear  friends  live  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  that 
which  is  gentle  and  pure,  from  above,  and  easy  to  be  en- 


UNDER  THE  RESTOFIATION  167 


treated,  and  bear  one  another's  infirmities  and  weaknesses, 
and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ ;  and  if  any  weakness  should 
appear  in  any  of  your  meetings,  not  for  any  to  lay  it  open 
and  tell  it  abroad ;  that  is  not  wisdom  that  doth  so,  for  love 
covers  a  multitude  of  sins,  and  love  preserves  and  edifies 
the  body,  and  they  that  dwell  in  love  dwell  in  God,  for 
He  is  love,  and  love  is  not  provoked.  And,  therefore,  keep 
the  law  of  love,  which  keeps  down  that  which  is  provoked, 
for  that  which  is  provoked  hath  words  which  are  for  con- 
demnation, therefore  let  the  law  of  love  be  amongst  you, 
it  will  keep  down  that  which  is  provoked  and  its  words, 
and  so  the  body  edifies  itself  in  love. 

"Copies  of  this  to  be  sent  all  abroad  amongst  Friends 
in  their  men's  meetings.    (1668.)  G.  F." 

The  treatment  of  Friends  or  Quakers  in  Ireland  was  as 
rigorous  as  in  England,  as  the  generals  of  the  Fox  army 
of  martyrs  were  preaching  in  its  green  fields,  writing  crit- 
icism. Among  them  were  John  Burnyeat  and  Robert  Lodge, 
who  were  imprisoned;  also  Thomase  Loe,  an  eminent  min- 
ister, and  William  Edmundson;  the  latter  being  released 
on  one  occasion  by  the  Earl  of  Mountrath,  who  stood  by  him 
against  the  Justice.  Later  he  was  arrested  again,  though 
he  accomplished  an  important  work  in  following  the  in- 
structions of  George  Fox  and  establishing  meetings  through- 
out Ireland.  These  were  called  "Provincial  Meetings"  in 
Ireland,  and  were  held  every  six  weeks. 

In  1669,  George  Fox  travelled  through  Ireland  and  de- 
voted himself  to  the  work  of  organization.  Among  others, 
he  founded  a  general  semi-annual  meeting,  to  meet  in  Dub- 
lin, with  power  to  send  delegates  to  London  meetings. 
George  Fox  and  William  Edmundson  now  travelled  over 


i68  UNDER  THE  RESTORATION 


Ireland  together,  and  it  was  the  direct  result  of  their  preach- 
ing that  attracted  the  attention  of  William  Penn  to  the 
Quakers,  as  he  joined  them  in  Ireland. 


THE  AiniOli  PA/\  TI\a  OF  WIIJJAM  PEW 


W ILL/ AM  I'lJXX  AS  A  YOUXG  MAN 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 
1667-1682. 

The  political  history  of  England  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second  is  of  profound  interest.  It  was  an  era 
of  gross  profligacy.  From  the  period  of  morality  under 
Cromwell,  the  politicians  appeared  to  pass  to  the  antipodes, 
all  of  which  forced  the  Quakers  into  greater  activities,  as 
they  considered  it  their  duty  to  rebuke  dissolute  practices. 

Clarendon  did  what  he  could  to  restrain  the  King,  but 
he  accumxulated  enemies,  who  at  last  overwhelmed  him. 
The  government  became  extremely  unpopular.  France 
loomed  up  as  an  enemy  and  only  the  cleverness  of  Sir 
William  Temple,  who  accomplished  the  triple  alliance  be- 
tween England,  Sweden  and  Holland,  thus  checking  the 
ambitions  of  France,  saved  the  day  and  restored  good  feel- 
ing in  England. 

At  this  time,  two  notable  figures  came  into  the  fold  of 
the  Quakers:  William  Penn,  a  son  of  Sir  Admiral  Wil- 
liam Penn,  and  Robert  Barclay  of  Uray. 

William  Penn  was  born  near  the  Tower  of  London  in 
1644,  y^^r  before  Laud  was  beheaded;  in  rapid  suc- 
cession in  his  boyhood,  came  the  execution  of  Charles  the 
First,  the  Protectorate  under  Cromwell,  and  the  Restora- 
tion of  Charles  the  Second.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
famous  admirals  in  the  British  service,  Sir  Admiral  Wil- 
liam Penn,  a  man  of  aristocratic  ambitions  and  the  friend 
of  King  Charles.    He  had  served  under  Charles  the  First 


lyo  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


and  was  Vice-Admiral  of  the  Straits  at  twenty-nine.  Crom- 
well gave  him  his  estates  in  Ireland  to  recoup  him  for 
various  losses;  yet  the  Protector  permitted  spies  and  in- 
formers to  undermine  Admiral  Penn  in  his  estimation;  and 
on  his  return  from  the  West  Indies  with  his  fleet  he  was 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison,  later  releasing  him. 

Pepys,  in  his  extraordinary  diary,  repeatedly  refers  to 
Penn,  and  the  following  from  a  sharp-tongued  gossip  of  the 
day,  a  Mrs  Turner,  a  cousin  of  Pepys,  illustrates  that  the 
venom  of  the  envious  gossip  was  "like  unto  a  serpent's 
tooth,"  even  in  the  seventeenth  century:  "Then  we  fell 
to  talk  of  Sir.  W.  Pen,  and  his  family  and  rise.  She  (Mrs. 
Turner)  says  that  he  was  a  pityfull  (fellow)  when  she  first 
knew  them;  that  his  lady  was  one  of  the  sourest,  dirty 
women,  that  ever  she  saw ;  that  they  took  two  chambers,  one 
over  another,  for  themselves  and  child,  in  Tower  Hill ;  that 
for  many  years  together  they  eat  more  meals  at  her  house 
than  at  their  own ;  did  call  brothers  and  sisters  the  husbands 
and  wives;  that  her  husband  was  godfather  to  one,  and  she 
godmother  to  another,  this  Margaret,  of  their  children,  by 
the  same  token  that  she  was  fain  to  write  with  her  own 
hand  a  letter  to  Captain  Twiddy,  to  stand  for  a  godfather 
for  her;  that  she  brought  my  Lady  who  was  then  a  dirty 
slattern,  with  her  stockings  hanging  about  her  heels,  so  that 
afterwards  the  people  of  the  whole  Hill  did  say  that  Mrs. 
Turner  had  made  Mrs.  Pen  a  gentlewoman,  first  to  the 
knowledge  of  my  Lady  Vane,  Sir  Henry's  lady,  and  him  to 
the  knowledge  of  most  of  the  great  people  that  then  he 
sought;  and  that  his  rise  hath  been  from  his  giving  of  large 
bribes,  wherein,  and  she  agrees  with  my  opinion  and  knowl- 
edge before  therein,  he  is  very  profuse." 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  171 

Upon  his  release  from  prison,  Sir  William  returned  to  his 
Irish  estate  near  Cork,  and  lived  the  life  of  a  country  gen- 
tleman. 

In  wandering  in  1910  through  the  beautiful  church  St. 
Mary  Redcliffe  of  Bristol,  which  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1574 
called  the  "fairest,  goodliest,  and  most  famous  parish  church 
in  England,"  where  so  many  Friends  have  suffered,  I  came 
upon  the  armor  of  Admiral  Penn,  hung  upon  the  ancient 
walls,  that  were  erected  in  1086,  mention  of  the  old  pile 
being  found  in  the  Charter  of  Henry  II.,  about  1158.  On 
the  interior  wall  of  the  tower  is  a  large  monumental  tablet 
to  Sir  William,  who  was  a  native  of  Bristol,  and  who  be- 
came a  Quaker.  He  is  buried  in  the  church.  Over  the  tab- 
let hangs  the  armor  and  the  parts  of  some  ancient  flags 
which  it  is  supposed  were  captured  from  the  Dutch  fleet. 
The  inscription  on  the  tablet  is  as  follows : 

To  ye  Just  Memory  of  Sr  Will  Penn  Kt  and  Sometimes 
Generall,  borne  at  Bristol  In  1621,  sone  of  Captain  Giles 
Penn  severall  years  Consul  for  ye  English  in  ye  Mediter- 
ranean of  ye  Penns  of  Penns  Lodge  in  the  County  of 
Wilts  &  those  Penn::  of  Penn  in  ye  C  of  Bucks  &  by 
his  Mother  from  ye  Gilberts  in  ye  County  of  Somerset. 
Originally  from  Yorkshire.   Adicted  from  his 
youth  to  Maritime  affaires.    He  was  made  Captain  at 
ye  years  of  2 1 ;  Rear-Admiral  of  Ireland  at  23 ;  Vice- 

Admiral  of  Ireland  at  25 ;  Admirall  to  ye  Streights 
at  29;  Vice-Admiral  of  England  at  31 ;  &  Generall 
in  ye  first  Dutch  Warres  at  32;  whence  retiring 
in  Ano  1655;  He  was  Chosen  a  Parliment  man  for  ye 

Town  of  Weymouth  1 660 ;  made  Commissioner  of 
ye  Admiralty,  &  Navy  Governor  of  ye  Towne  &  forts  of 


172  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


King-sail,  Vice-Admirall  of  Munster  &  a  member  of 
that  Provincial!  Counseill  &  in  Anno  1664  Was 
Chosen  Great  Captain-Commander  under  his 
Royal  Highnesse ;  in  Ye  Signall  and  Most  Evidently 

successfuU  fight  against  ye  Dutch  fleet. 
Thus  He  Took  Leave  of  the  Sea,  His  old  element,  But 
Continued  still  His  other  Employs  Till  1669  at  what 
Time,  Through  Bodely  Infirmitys  (Contracted  by  ye 
Care  and  fatigue  of  Publique  Affairs)  He  Withdrew 
Prepared  &  Made  for  His  End :  Si  with  a  Gentle  & 
Even  Gale  in  much  Peace  Arrived  and  Ancord  In  his 
Last  and  Best  Port,  at  Wanstead  in  ye  County  of  Essex 
ye  16  Sept:  1670,  being  then  but  49  &  4  Months  old. 
''To  whose  Name  and  Merit,  His  Surviving  Lady 
hath  Erected  this  Remembrance." 

His  son  was  being  prepared  for  Oxford  by  a  tutor,  when 
Thomas  Loe,  a  Quaker  minister,  went  to  the  vicinity  and 
aroused  profound  interest,  making  many  converts.  Sir  Wil- 
liam, with  the  inbred  courtesy  of  an  English  gentleman  whose 
motto  is  always  fair  play,  invited  the  preacher  to  his  house 
where  a  meeting  was  held.  Young  Penn,  later  the  founder 
of  Pennsylvania,  was  but  eleven  years  old,  but  the  meeting 
and  the  preacher's  words  made  a  lasting  impression  on  him. 
Later  he  entered  Oxford,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
in  these  days  he  had  a  strong  predilection  for  religion.  The 
same  Thomas  Loe  preached  at  Oxford  while  Penn  was  a 
student.  He  and  some  friends  heard  him  and  were  so  con- 
vinced of  the  correctness  of  his  deductions  that  Young  Penn 
became  a  convert  and  was  expelled  from  the  University  for 
refusing  to  wear  the  cap  and  gown,  and  for  other  breaches 
of  University  law  and  order.    Admiral  Penn,  was  highly 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  173 

enraged  at  this,  denouncing  his  son  in  unmeasured  terms, 
and  cut  to  the  quick  by  what  he  considered  an  exhibition  of 
the  commonplace  in  his  well-bred  heir,  for  whom  he  had 
intended  a  totally  different  career.  Believing  that  absence 
would  break  up  the  interest  in  Quakers  he  sent  his  son 
abroad  where  he  remained  until  the  war  with  the  Dutch, 
when  his  father  recalled  him  and  presented  him  at  Court. 

Everything  pointed  to  a  life  consistent  with  the  follies 
of  the  day.  Young  Penn  was  a  man  of  fashion,  the  son  of 
a  knight,  who  was  the  intimate  friend  of  the  Duke  of  York 
a  possible  king.  Pepys  refers  to  him  as  follows:  "Mr. 
Penn,  Sir  William's  son,  is  come  back  from  France,  and 
come  to  visit  my  wife,  a  most  modish  person  grown,  she 
says,  a  fine  gentleman." 

Admiral  Penn  now  went  to  sea  in  command  of  the  fleet 
and  young  Penn  accompanied  him  as  a  member  of  the  staff. 
Later  he  was  ordered  home  with  dispatches  to  the  King,  and 
sent  to  Ireland  with  letters  to  the  Duke  of  Ormond.  Every 
effort  was  made  by  Sir  William  to  keep  his  son  from  the 
Quakers;  but  the  latter  again  met  Thomas  Loe  and  all  the 
latent  interest  in  the  Quakers  was  revived.  Later  young 
Penn  was  arrested  at  a  Quaker  meeting  in  Cork.  The  Earl 
of  Ossory  procured  his  release,  but  notified  the  Admiral  that 
his  son  had  turned  Quaker.  Sir  William  ordered  him  home. 
Young  Penn  obeyed  the  summons,  but  was  accompanied 
by  Josiah  Cole,  a  kinsman  of  Christopher  Holder.  The 
two  presented  their  case  warmly,  but  the  Admiral  would  not 
hear  to  his  son  becoming  a  Quaker  and  was  greatly  enraged. 
He  even  attempted  to  disown  him,  but  his  mother  interceded, 
a  truce  was  declared,  and  the  young  man  was  allowed  to 
remain  at  home. 


174 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


Later  he  met  George  Fox  and  during  a  conversation,  he 
asked  if  it  was  right  for  him  to  wear  a  sword,  a  fashion 
he  still  held  to.  Fox  replied,  "Wear  it  as  long  as  thou 
canst."  A  short  time  after,  they  met  again  and  Fox  observ- 
ing that  the  sword  was  gone,  asked,  "Where  is  thy  sword?" 
Penn  replied,  "I  took  thy  advice,  I  wore  it  as  long  as  I 
could." 

William  Penn  from  now  on  became  a  strong  virile  figure 
in  the  Society,  and  at  the  age  of  twent>'-four  he  was  con- 
sidered one  of  its  ablest  preachers.  Having  been  finely 
educated,  a  French  and  Italian  scholar,  a  man  of  the  highest 
culture,  he  soon  began  to  write  on  the  subject  of  "Quaker- 
ism," and  his  list  of  books  and  pamphlets  is  a  very  long  one. 
While  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of  London,  1668,  he  wrote, 
"No  Cross,  No  Crown,"  and  with  Barclay,  author  of  the 
"Apolog>%"  etc.,  and  Christopher  Holder,  author  of  various 
works  and  the  first  "Declaration  of  Faith  of  Quakers,"  he 
ranks  as  one  of  the  distinguished  literary  lights  of  the  Early 
Quakers. 

Now  came  the  re-enactment  of  the  Conventicle,  October, 
1670,  by  which  no  religious  ceremony  was  allowed  which 
differed  from  that  of  the  Church  of  England,  an  act  whicH 
was  designed  to  force  England  backward  mto  the  dark  ages, 
and  to  bring  untold  suffering  upon  the  Quakers,  who  could 
not  obey  it. 

They  ignored  it  everywhere,  and  among  the  first  to  be 
arrested  after  its  passage,  were  William  Penn  and  William 
Meade ;  the  charge  being  a  strange  one  for  men  who,  if  any- 
thing, were  protagonists  of  the  principle  of  eternal,  uncom- 
promising peace.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the 
charge:  "With  force  and  arms  unlawfully  and  tumultuously 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  175 

assemble  and  congregate  themselves  together  to  the  disturb- 
ance of  the  peace  of  the  said  Lord  and  King,  to  the  great 
terror  and  disturbance  of  many  of  his  liege  people  and  sub- 
jects," etc.  The  jury  was  forced  to  bring  in  a  verdict  against 
Penn  and  Meade,  and  they  were  sent  to  Newgate  from 
which  Penn  was  released  by  his  father,  who  in  the  end  be- 
came reconciled  to  him,  paying  the  fine. 

Admiral  Penn  died  after  a  distinguished  career.  Soon 
after,  the  son  was  again  thrown  into  Newgate,  where  he 
found  Edward  Gove.  William  Penn  was  released  in  six 
months,  and  again  sailed  for  Holland  and  Germany.  On 
his  return  he  married  Gulielma  Maria  Springe tt,  daughter 
of  Sir  William  Springett,  who  was  also  the  choice  of  Thomas 
Ellwood,  one  of  the  finest  characters  in  all  Quaker  history. 
They  lived  at  Rickmansworth,  near  Chalfont,  the  home  of 
Sir  Isaac  Pennington.  Penn  again  went  to  Holland  where 
he  held  meetings  in  the  home  of  Princess  Elizabeth  of  the 
Palatinate,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Bohemia  and  grand- 
daughter of  James  I.  She  became  deeply  interested  in  the 
Quakers  and  their  work,  as  the  following  letter  to  William 
Penn  indicates: 

"Herford,  May  2,  1677. 
'This,  friend,  will  tell  you  that  both  your  letters  were 
very  acceptable,  together  with  your  wishes  for  my  obtain- 
ing those  virtues  which  may  make  me  a  worthy  follower  of 
our  great  King  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  What  I  have 
done  for  his  true  disciples  is  not  so  much  as  a  cup  of  cold 
water;  it  affords  them  no  refreshment;  neither  did  I  expect 
any  fruit  of  my  letter  to  the  duchess  of  L.  as  I  have  ex- 
pressed at  the  same  time  unto  B.  F.  But  since  R.  B.  de- 
sired I  should  write  it,  I  could  not  refuse  him,  nor  omit  to 


176  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


do  anything  that  was  judged  conducing  to  his  liberty,  though 
it  should  expose  me  to  the  derision  of  the  world.  But  this 
a  mere  moral  man  can  reach  at  ;  the  true  inward  graces  are 
yet  wanting  in 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"Elizabeth." 

And  also  a  letter  to  George  Fox : 
"Dear  Friend, 

"I  cannot  but  have  a  tender  love  to  those  that  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  whom  it  is  given  not  only  to  be- 
lieve in  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  him:  therefore  your  let- 
ter, and  your  friend's  visit,  have  been  both  very  welcome 
to  me.  I  shall  follow  their  and  your  counsel,  as  far  as  God 
will  afford  me  light  and  unction;  remaining  still, 

"Your  loving  friend, 

"Elizabeth. 

"Herford.  the  30th  of  August,  1677." 

In  1671,  Margaret  Fell,  now  the  wife  of  George  Fox,  was 
in  jail,  but  he  procured  her  release  by  an  appeal  to  the  King 
and  soon  after  sailed  for  America,  returning  the  following 
summer  or  in  1673.  Many  Friends  went  to  Bristol  to  meet 
him,  among  them  William  Penn,  John  Rouse,  his  wife's 
son-in-law,  Thomas  Lower,  and  many  more.  From  here, 
he  went  to  London  and  was  in  a  short  time  again  in  jail  at 
Worcester,  where  he  nearly  died  before  his  friends  procured 
his  release.  Up  to  this  time  over  two  hundred  Quakers  had 
died  in  the  jails  of  England  or  since  the  restoration  of 
Charles  the  Second,  yet  the  Society  was  constantly  increas- 
ing in  numbers  and  enlarging  its  sphere  of  influence.  This 
apparently  enraged  other  non-conformists  who  joined  in  the 
fray  as  enemies  of  the  defenceless  Quakers  who  were 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


177 


whipped,  beaten,  struck  down  in  the  streets,  thrust  into  vile 
dungeons,  their  women  insulted,  brutally  attacked,  their 
statements  misquoted;  in  fact,  every  possible  insult  and  deg- 
redation  was  thrust  upon  them.  Yet  they  remained  pas- 
sive, protesting  in  prayerful  rebuke,  which  often  incensed 
their  enemies  more  than  would  a  muscular  retaliation. 

There  is  nothing  more  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  than  the  gradual  winning  of  this  Quaker  battle  by 
passive  resistance.  The  Quakers  merely  gripped  their  Faith 
and  pressed  on,  eternally  on.  Released  from  jail,  they  im- 
mediately began  to  preach  or  visit  meetings,  refused  to  take 
an  oath,  and  were  thrown  into  jail  again;  until  the  author- 
ities were  often  at  their  wits  end  and  in  desperation  released 
them. 

George  Fox  had  earned  a  reputation  not  at  all  compatible 
with  his  gentle  nature.  He  was  supposed  to  possess  mirac- 
ulous powers,  and  many  ignorant  Royalists  believed  that  he 
had  the  ''evil  eye;'"  so  many  of  his  prophetic  sayings  came 
true  that  they  were  afraid  of  him.  This  superstition  was 
seized  upon  by  the  non-conformist  enemies  and  enlarged 
upon  to  extraordinary  extremes.  In  the  meantime,  Fox 
was  devising  schools  for  che  children  of  Friends.  One  for 
girls  was  established  at  Shacklewall;  another  boarding  school 
for  boys  at  Waltham.  As  years  went  on,  these  were  in- 
creased in  England  and  in  the  colonies,  and  by  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century  there  were  over  twenty  seminaries 
for  both  sexes,  boarding  and  day  schools,  with  learned 
Friends  at  their  head. 

Politically  this  was  the  period  of  the  famous  Cabal,  the 
King's  cabinet  being  composed  of  live  men  the  initial  let- 
ters of  whose  names  spelled  Cabal.  They  were  Clifford, 
12 


178  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


Arlington,  Buckingham,  Ashley  and  Lauderdale.  The  three 
latter  were  famous  for  their  infamy  in  a  moral  sense,  at  a 
time  when  immorality  was  epidemic  among  politicians  and 
courtiers.  It  can  be  readily  appreciated,  that  the  Quakers, 
who  viewed  such  lives  with  horror,  could  expect  little  from 
a  King  with  advisers  of  this  type,  who  laughed  at  the  Qua- 
kers and  considered  them  in  the  light  of  a  public  nuisance, 
to  be  gotten  rid  of  easily,  if  possible,  but  to  be  crushed. 

In  following  the  extraordinary  struggle  of  the  Quakers 
for  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  de- 
tails of  which  would,  if  properly  elaborated,  fill  twenty  vol- 
umes of  the  size  of  this,  the  reader  is  advised  to  read  the 
intimate  history  of  England,  especially  under  Charles  the 
Second,  or  the  Restoration,  to  more  fully  appreciate  the 
strength,  vitality  and  enthusiasm  of  the  Quaker  cause 
in  the  face  of  death,  persecution  and  financial  ruin.  Men 
like  Buckingham,  who  had  exhausted  all  the  sensual  pleas- 
ures, now  were  toying  with  a  game  of  chess,  whose  pawns 
were  living  kings,  emperors,  queens  and  heirs  apparent.  We 
have  the  spectacle  of  political  intrigue  that  amazes  the 
world  to-day,  of  Louis  of  France  manipulating  the  cords  at- 
tached to  the  British  puppets,  and  making  them  move  ac- 
cording to  his  dictation  and  sovereign  will.  It  was  a  mar- 
velous illustration  of  what  a  great  people  will  endure  at 
the  hands  of  a  sovereign,  a  figure  head,  which  they  have 
been  taught  for  centuries  to  almost  worship  as  a  pseudo 
God. 

One  day,  we  have  the  spectacle  of  George  Fox,  Chris- 
topher Holder  and  Thomas  Ellwood  appealing  to  the  King 
to  stand  for  high  morality  and  liberty  of  conscience.  The 
next  we  see  Charles  receiving  the  woman  spy  sent  by  Louis 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


of  France,  Louisa  of  Querouaille,  who  is  promptly  permit- 
ted to  triumph  over  all  her  rivals,  to  quote  Macauley,  and 
is  created  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  to  the  eternal  disgrace  of 
the  sovereign  who  did  not  hesitate  to  prostitute  the  highest 
gift  in  his  power  to  this  liaison  laid  and  planned  by  France. 

To  make  matters  more  difficult  for  the  Quakers,  the  King 
had  consummated  the  Treaty  of  Dover,  in  which  he  prom- 
ised to  make  public  profession  of  Roman  Catholicism,  and, 
as  a  result,  terrible  persecution  of  Catholics  in  England  fol- 
lowed. 

English  history  was  a  romance  at  this  time  with  its  re- 
markable men,  as  Sir  George  Jeffries,  the  Earl  of  Claren- 
don, the  Duke  of  York,  Lord  Halifax,  the  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, the  Earl  of  Shaftsbury,  the  Duke  of  Ormond, 
Lawrence  Hyde,  Sidney  Godolphin,  Viscount  Stafford  and 
Essex,  Henry,  Earl  of  Peterborough,  Lord  Guilford,  the 
Earl  of  Rochester  and  many  more,  with  their  marvelous 
systems  of  intrigue,  their  plots  and  counter-plots,  their  re- 
ligions and  vices.  It  reads  like  a  miracle  to-day,  and  we 
can  but  marvel  that  Quakerism,  a  system  of  absolute  piety 
of  the  most  uncompromising  type  and  character,  could  for  a 
moment  hold  its  ground  in  a  land  given  over  so  completely 
to  sensuality,  intrigue  and  unbridled  debauchery. 

The  conditions  were  absolutely  impossible  for  the  con- 
tinuance and  perpetuity  of  any  true  religion  which  could 
not  be  welded  into  a  great  political  juggernaut,  as  Catholic- 
ism or  Episcopalianism  was  at  the  time,  each  striving  for 
supremac}'-  in  a  warfare  at  once  disgraceful  and  terrible. 
The  awful  cry  of  no  popery  was  heard  amid  the  slaughter 
of  the  innocents;  or  again,  acts  were  passed  forbidding  all 
forms  which  did  not  accord  to  the  Episcopal  church.  It 


i8o  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


was  pre-eminently  not  the  golden  era  of  the  non-conformists ; 
yet  as  the  skies  grew  red  and  lowering,  George  Fox  redoubled 
his  efforts,  sent  out  more  ministers,  flooded  England,  Wales, 
Scotland  and  Ireland  with  them,  crossed  and  re-crossed  Eng- 
land; now  preaching  to  the  common  people,  again  directing 
an  appeal  to  the  King,  rebuking  the  Pope  for  the  acts  of 
Catholicism,  writing  countless  protests  to  judges,  justices, 
generals  of  the  army,  commanders  of  the  fleet,  governors  of 
prisons.  Certainly  this  man  with  all  the  mistakes  he  may 
have  made,  due  to  over  enthusiasm,  presented  a  noble  fig- 
ure, illumining  an  age  of  debauchery  with  the  splendors  of 
pure  goodness,  purity  and  a  Christ-like  example. 

It  has  been  the  custom  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
centuries  for  sensational  writers  and  preachers  to  picture 
in  the  public  imagination  the  return  of  Christ,  and  to  ask 
what  Christ  would  do.  If  the  reader  will  carefully  study 
the  Journal  of  George  Fox,  he  or  she  will  see  that  this  plain 
man  was  attempting  to  solve  this  question  of  the  ages.  He 
was  a  man  of  the  people,  of  moderate  means,  but  he  pos- 
sessed as  pure  and  sweet  a  heart  and  soul  as  man  ever 
had,  and  he  carried  into  England  in  the  seventeenth  century 
the  best  imitation  of  Christ's  life  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
He  made  no  pretense  of  Christ-like  attributes.  He  knew 
himself  to  be  an  humble  seeker  after  truth  and  religious 
liberty;  but  he  endeavored  earnestly  to  live  the  simple  life 
that  Christ  lived,  which,  stripped  of  all  ambiguity,  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  Quaker.  When  persecuted  the  most,  when 
in  deepest  despair,  George  Fox  devised  methods  to  educate 
the  young  and  to  provide  them  with  trades.  The  latter 
is  referred  to  in  the  following : 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  181 

''My  dear  Friends, 

''Let  every  Quarterly  Meeting  make  inquiry  through  all 
the  Monthly  and  other  meetings,  to  know  all  friends  that 
are  widows,  or  others,  that  have  children  fit  to  put  out  to 
apprenticeships ;  so  that  once  a  quarter  you  may  set  forth  an 
apprentice  from  your  quarterly  meeting;  so  you  may  set 
forth  four  in  a  year,  in  each  county,  or  more,  if  there  be 
occasion.  This  apprentice,  when  out  of  his  time,  may  help 
his  father  or  mother,  and  support  the  family  that  is  decayed ; 
and,  in  so  doing,  all  may  come  to  live  comfortably.  This 
being  done  in  your  quarterly  meetings,  ye  will  have  knowl- 
edge through  the  county,  in  the  monthly  and  particular 
meetings,  of  masters  fit  for  them ;  and  of  such  trades  as  their 
parents  or  you  desire,  or  the  children  are  most  inclinable  to. 
Thus  being  placed  out  to  Friends,  they  may  be  trained  up 
in  truth ;  and  by  this  means  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  you  may 
preserve  Friends'  children  in  the  truth,  and  enable  them  to 
be  a  strength  and  help  to  their  families,  and  nursers  and 
preservers  of  their  relations  in  their  ancient  days. 

"Thus  also,  things  being  ordered  in  the  wisdom  of  God, 
you  will  take  off  a  continual  maintenance,  and  free  your- 
selves from  such  cumber.  For  in  the  country,  ye  know,  ye 
may  set  forth  an  apprentice  for  a  little  to  several  trades,  as 
bricklayers,  masons,  carpenters,  wheel  rights,  ploughrights, 
tailors,  tanners,  curriers,  blacksmiths,  shoemakers,  nailers, 
butchers,  weavers  of  linen  and  woolen,  stuffs  and  serves,  etc. 
And  you  may  do  well  to  have  a  stock  in  your  quarterly  meet- 
ings for  that  purpose.  All  that  is  given  by  any  friends  at 
their  decease,  except  it  be  given  to  some  particular  use,  per- 
son, or  meeting,  may  be  brought  to  the  public  stock  for  that 
purpose.    This  will  be  a  way  for  the  preserving  of  many 


i82  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


that  are  poor  among  you  ;  and  it  will  be  a  way  of  making 
up  poor  families.  In  several  counties  it  is  practised  already. 
Some  quarterly  meetings  set  forth  two  apprentices;  and 
sometimes  the  children  of  others  that  are  laid  on  the  parish. 
You  may  bind  them  for  fewer  or  more  years,  according  to 
their  capacities.  In  all  things  the  wisdom  of  God  will 
teach  you ;  by  which  ye  may  help  the  children  of  poor  friends, 
that  they  may  come  to  support  their  families,  and  preserve 
them  in  the  fear  of  God.  So  no  more,  but  my  love  in  the 
everlasting  Seed,  by  which  ye  will  have  wisdom  to  order 
all  things  to  the  glory  of  God. 

G.  F." 

"London,  the  first  of  the  nth  month,  1669." 

During  these  years,  William  Penn's  writings  aroused  the 
flame  ever  and  anon  against  the  Quakers.  Pepys  thus  refers 
to  one  of  his  early  books:  "Here  we  met  with  Mr.  Batelier 
and  his  sister,  and  so  they  home  with  us  in  two  coaches,  and 
there  at  my  house  staid  and  supped,  and  this  night  my  book- 
seller Shrewsbury  comes,  and  brings  my  books  of  Martyrs, 
and  I  did  pay  him  for  them,  and  did  this  night  make  the 
young  women  before  supper  to  open  all  the  volumes  for  me. 
Read  a  ridiculous,  nonsensical  book  set  out  by  Will  Pen, 
for  the  Quakers ;  but  so  full  of  nothing  but  nonsense,  that  I 
was  ashamed  to  read  in  it." 

One  of  his  books,  procured  his  imprisonment  in  the  Tower. 
The  prelates  were  much  offended,  claiming  that  he  was 
guilty  of  treason,  and  would  have  been  well  pleased  to  have 
seen  him  go  to  the  block.  Penn  appealed  to  Lord  Arling- 
ton, Secretary  of  State,  and  despite  an  atrocious  attempt  to 
entangle  him,  was  released  after  eight  months  in  the  Tower 
without  trial  or  conviction,  the  Bishops  of  London  assuring 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  183 


him  that  he  must  recant  or  die  in  the  Tower,  suggestive  that 
freedom  of  conscience  was  still  a  misnomer. 

In  1681  George  Fox  and  his  wife  were  sued  for  tithes 
which  they  had  not  paid  for  years.  During  the  trial  it  came 
out  that  in  the  marriage  settlement  of  Margaret  Fell  and 
George  Fox,  the  latter  had  agreed  in  writing  not  to  inter- 
fere with  her  personal  estate  in  any  way,  a  condition  so 
unique  that  Sewell  says  the  judges  wondered  at  it,  and  in 
the  act  we  see  one  of  the  first  recognitions  of  the  rights  of 
women  to  their  own  property. 

About  this  time  William  Penn  consummated  his  great 
plan  of  a  Quaker  colony  in  America.  The  King  owed  Ad- 
miral Penn  a  large  sum  of  money  within  all  probability,  a 
friendly  feeling,  and  it  may  be  assumed  a  desire  to  get  rid 
of  Quakers  at  any  cost,  and  due  to  the  influence  of  James, 
Duke  of  York,  a  friend  of  his  father,  the  King  gave  a  pat- 
ent to  a  vast  tract  in  America  to  Penn,  and  his  heirs  in 
perpetuam^  which  became  the  great  state  of  Pennsylvania, 
thus  obliterating  the  personal  debt  of  $80,000. 

In  this  year,  1682,  Christopher  Holder,  who  was  travel- 
ling through  England  preaching,  was  arrested  for  refusing 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  carried  before  Justice  Hunt 
and  sent  to  jail.  Two  days  later  he  was  again  presented 
with  the  opportunity  to  take  the  oath  of  the  Charter  Ses- 
sions, but  again  refused,  stating  that  he  would  "affirm" 
but  would  not  take  the  oath,  as  it  was  against  his  religious 
belief.  After  a  time  he  was  released,  but  while  preaching 
at  Bellipool,  one  Giles  Ball  of  Somersetshire,  keeper  of  the 
llchester  jail,  entered  and  ordered  him  to  desist,  and  upon 
his  refusal  arrested  him  and  threw  him  into  jail,  from 
which  he  was  removed  to  Launceston  Castle  in  Cornwall, 


i84  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


where,  apparently,  he  was  kept  a  year.  In  all,  he  spent  over 
four  years  of  his  life  in  England  in  various  jails,  which  with 
the  suffering  he  had  endured  in  America,  made  serious  in- 
roads upon  his  health. 

An  interesting  character  during  the  time  of  Fox  and  Penn 
was  Sir  John  Rodes  of  Barlbrough,  a  young  friend  and 
protege  of  William  Penn.  One  of  Penn's  letters  to  Sir 
John*  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  his  literary  taste,  and  his 
views  of  how  a  young  man  should  divide  up  his  time : 

WILLIAM  PENN  TO  SIR.  JOHN  RODES 

the  ^  1693. 

"Dear  Friend, — I  hope  I  shall  always  be  ready  to  show 
thee  how  much  I  desire  thy  prosperity  every  way.  It  is 
long  I  have  travelled  in  my  spirit  for  thee  and  know- 
ing the  temptations  that  would  grow  upon  thee  and  the  evill 
days  by  means  thereof  that  must  attend  thee,  I  have  prayed 
that  thy  faith  fail  not,  and  that  thou  faintest  not  by  the 
way;  for  thou  hast  been  called  to  a  glorious  mark,  even  that 
of  an  Heirship  with  the  Beloved  of  God  in  Paternal  Habita- 
tions. The  Lord  preserve  thee  to  the  end.  Now  as  to  w^ 
I  mean  at  C.  Mars.f  it  is  this:  a  Course  of  Method  of  life 
as  far  as  we  can  be  our  own,  I  would  divide  my  days  by  the 
week,  and  then  the  times  of  the  day,  and  when  I  had  Con- 
sidered and  divided  my  business,  I  would  proportion  it  to 
my  time.  Suppose,  for  example,  thus:  ^4  to  Religion,  in 
Waiting,  Reading,  Meditating,  .    .    .    %  to  some 

♦Footnote. — The  letter  is  contained  in  "A  Quaker  Post  Bag,"  by 
Mrs.  G.  L.  Lampson,  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  Publishers,  to  whom 
I  am  indebted  for  permission  to  quote  it. 
t  Christmas.  ' 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  185 


generall  study;  ^  to  meals  and  some  Bodily  Labour  as 
Gardning,  or  some  Mathematical!  Exercise.  ^  to  serve 
friends  or  neighbours  and  look  after  my  Estate ;  It  prevents 
consumption  of  time  and  confusion  in  Business.  The  books 
I  spoke  of  that  are  most  valuable  for  a  moderate  Library 
are  as  follows:  For  Religion  the  Bible,  Friends'  Books,  of 
w^^  I  advise  an  exact  collection,  binding  the  small  up  in 
vollumes  together.  The  Books  of  Martyrs.  For  Contro- 
versy between  Pap  and  Protestants  Bp  Jewel  against  Hard- 
ing. L^  Faulkland  of  Infalibility,  and  Chillingworth.  For 
Devotion  the  Scriptures,  Friend's  Epistles,  Austin  his  City 
of  God,  his  Soliloquies,  Thom  a  Kempis,  Bona,  a  late  piece 
call  Unum  Necessarium,  and  a  Voyce  crying  out  of  the  Wil- 
derness writt  in  Q  Elizabeth's  time;  of  Books  forrunning 
Friends  appearance,  T.  Saltmarsh,  W.  Dell,  W.  Erberry, 
Goad,  Coppins,  &  Webster,  his  Works.  For  Religious  His- 
tory Eusebius,  bp  Usher's  Annals,  Cradock  of  the  Apostles, 
History  of  the  Waldenses  S^  Sam  Morland's  of  the  Per- 
secutions in  Piedmont.  Of  mixt  &  generall  History 
Prideaux,  thin  quarto,  Petavius,  a  thin  folio.  Afterwards 
Dr  Howel  late  of  Cambridge,  not  forgetting  S'"  W. 
Raleigh's  for  his  Preface  sake.  For  natural  Philosophy 
Enchiridion  Physical  and  some  of  Sqr  Boyle's  Works.  For 
Mathematicks,  Le)^born.  For  Physick,  Riverius.  For  the 
Gall,  Way,  and  for  Chymistry  le  Faber,  unless  a  Practi- 
tioner, then,  Helmont,  Glauber,  Crollius,  Hartman  Scroder 
&  Tibaut  &c. ;  and  for  Improvem^s  of  Lands  &  Gardens 
Blith  &  Smith,  Systema  Agriculturae,  English  and  French 
Gardener.  For  Policy,  above  all  Books,  the  Bible,  that  is, 
the  old  Testam*^  writings,  Thucydes,  Tacitus,  Council  of 
Trent,  Machieval,  Thynanus,  Grotius's  Annals.    Of  our 


i86  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


own  Country  Daniel  and  Tmssel.  Bacon  Life  of  H. 

7th  Ld.  Herbert's  H.  8^^  and  Camden  Eliz.  Thorn. 
Moor's  Utopia.  Nat.  Bacon.  Hist,  of  the  Gov.  of  E.  Sad- 
dler's Rights  of  the  Kingdom,  Rob  Cotton's  Works,  the 
Pamphlets  since  the  Reformation  pro  et  con.  to  be  had  at 
the  Acorn,  in  Pauls  Yard,  to  be  bound  up  together,  com- 
prisable  in  about  6  quarto  vollumes.  Rushworth's  Collec- 
tions, tho  large,  are  not  unusefull,  being  particular,  and  our 
own  History  and  the  best  since  30,  w^^  is  the  chief  est  time 
of  Action.  But  I  will  add  one,  more,  the  English  Memor- 
ials, by  the  Lord  Whitlock,  a  great  man,  and  who  dyed  a 
Confessor  to  truth,  in  w^^  thy  Grandfather  is  handsomely 
mentioned.  *Thes  for  the  main  Body  of  a  study  will  be 
sufficient  and  very  accomplishing. 

"There  are  other  Books  of  use  and  valine,  as  Selden  of 
Tythes,  Tayler's  Liberty  of  Prophesy,  Goodwin's  Antiqui- 
ties, Cave's  Primative  Christianity,  Morals  of  the  Gentiles, 
Plutarch,  Seneca,  Epictetus,  M.  A.  Antoninus.  Also  Lives, 
as  Plutarch,  Stanly's  of  the  Philosophers,  Lloyd's  State 
Worthys,  Clark's  Lives  and  Winstanley's  England's 
Worthys.  There  are  6  or  8  Books  Publisht  by  one  R.  B. 
as  the  History  of  England,  S  and  J  surprising  Miracles, 
Admirable  Curiositys  &  that  have  profitable  diversion  in 
them.  But  if  I  were  to  begin  again,  I  would  buy  as  I  read, 
or  but  a  few  more  at  least,  and  in  Reading  have  a  pencil, 
and  w^  is  of  Instruction  or  observable,  mark  it  in  the  Mar- 
gent  with  the  most  leading  word  and  collect  those  memo- 
randums with  their  Pages  into  a  clean  sheet  put  into  the 


*  Probably  his  great-grandfather,  Sir  Gervase  Clifton.  See 
Whitlock's  "Memorials  of  the  English  Affairs,  p.  185." 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  187 


Book  or  a  Pocket  Book  for  that  purpose,  w^^  is  the  way 
to  fasten      one  reads  and  to  be  master  of  other  men's  sense. 

"All ways  write  thy  name  in  the  Title  Pages,  if  not  year 
and  cost,  that  if  lent,  the  Owner  may  be  better  remembered 
and  found.  Observe  to  put  down  in  a  Pocket-Book,  for 
that  purpose,  all  openings  of  moment  w^^  are  usually  short, 
but  full  and  lively;  for  I  have  few  things  to  remember  with 
more  trouble  then  forgetting  of  such  irrecoverable  Thoughts 
and  Reflections.  I  have  lost  a  vollume  of  them.  They  come 
without  toyle  or  beating  the  Brain,  therefore  the  purer,  and 
upon  all  subjects.  Nature,  Grace,  and  Art.  Thou  art  young, 
now  is  the  time  and  use  it  to  the  utmost  profit.  Oh !  had  I 
thy  time  in  all  likelihood  to  live,  w^  could  I  not  do.  There- 
fore, prize  thy  time.  I  am  now  26  years  beyond  thy  age, 
and  tho  I  have  done  and  sufferd  much,  I  could  be  a  better 
Husband  of  that  most  precious  Jewel.  The  Lord  direct 
thee  in  thy  ways,  and  he  will,  if  thee  take  him  for  thy  Guide, 
and  if  he  be  the  Guide  of  thy  Youth,  to  be  sure  he  will  not 
leave  thee  in  thy  old  age.  To  him  I  committ  thee  and  to  the 
word  of  his  Grace  with  w^^  wisdom  and  a  sound  under- 
standing that  makf  s  men  Gentlemen  indeed  and  accomplisht 
to  inherit  both  Worlds,  for  the  Earth  is  for  the  Meek,  and 
Heaven  for  the  Poor  and  Pure  in  Heart  and  Spirit. 

"Give  my  love  and  respects  to  thy  Mothet  and  Rela- 
tions ;  all  your  welfare  in  the  Lord  I  wish  and  am  affection- 
ately Thy  Cordial  friend.  W.  P." 

"My  dear  love  salutes  friends  and  J.  Gr.  especially. 

"My  indisposition  with  the  toothache  abliged  me  to  use 
an  other  hand.  Farewell. 

"I  forgot  Law  Books,  as  the  Statutes  at  Large  and 
abridged-Doctors  and  Students,  Horn's  Mirror  of  Justice, 


i88  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


Cook's  Institutes,  the  Compleat  Justice,  Sheriff,  Constable  & 
Clark,  and  of  Wills,  Godolphin,  Justinians  Institutes  is  an 
excellent  book  also." 

Lord  Macaulay's  attitude  to  the  Quaker  at  the  time  of 
Fox  and  Penn,  and  especially  when  he  writes  of  the  latter, 
is  open  to  just  comment  and  criticism.  It  is  interesting  as 
showing  the  anti-Quaker  side.  Hayward  says  in  his  critique 
of  the  great  historian:  "Give  Lord  Macauley  a  hint,  a 
fancy,  an  insulated  fact  or  phrase,  a  scrap  of  a  journal  or 
the  tag  end  of  a  song,  and  on  it,  by  the  abused  prerogative 
of  genius,  he  would  construct  a  theory  of  national  or  per- 
sonal character,  which  should  confer  undying  glory,  or  in- 
flict indelible  disgrace." 

In  this  connection,  Macauley' s  confession  of  faith  is  in- 
teresting : 

"My  confession  of  faith  is  very  simple  and  explicit,  and 
is  at  the  service  of  anybody  who  asks  for  it.  I  do  not  agree 
with  the  High  Churchmen  in  thinking  that  the  state  is  al- 
ways bound  to  teach  religious  faith  to  the  people.  I  do  not 
agree  with  the  Voluntaries  in  thinking  that  it  is  always 
wrong  in  a  State  to  support  a  religious  establishment.  I 
think  the  question  a  question  of  expediency,  to  be  decided 
on  a  comparison  of  good  and  evil  effects.  I  do  not  think 
it  necessary  to  inquire  whether,  if  there  were  no  established 
kirk  in  Scotland,  it  would  be  fit  to  set  one  up.  I  find  a  kirk 
established.  I  am  not  prepared  to  pull  it  down ;  I  will  leave 
it  what  it  has,  but  I  will  arm  it  with  no  new  powers.  I 
will  impose  no  new  burdens  on  the  people  for  its  support. 
I  will  make  no  distinction  as  to  civil  matters  between  the 
Churchman  and  the  Dissenter.  There  are  some  questions 
which  relate  purely  to  the  internal  constitution  of  the 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  189 


church.  Those  questions  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  de- 
cided with  a  view  to  the  efficiency  and  respectability  of  the 
Church." 

The  historian  comments  as  follows:  "But  though  he, 
Penn,  harangued  on  his  favorite  theme,  with  a  copiousness 
that  tired  his  hearers  out,  and  though  he  assured  them  that 
the  approach  of  a  golden  age  of  religious  liberty  had  been 
revealed  to  him  by  a  man  who  was  permitted  to  converse 
with  Angels,"  no  impression  was  made  on  the  Prince.  The 
reference  obviously  refers  to  George  Fox,  and  would  have 
been  important  if  true.  Again,  "Penn  was  at  Chester  on 
a  pastoral  tour.  His  popularity  and  authority  among  his 
brethren  had  greatly  declined,  since  he  had  become  a  tool 
of  the  King  of  the  Jesuits."  Macauley  obtains  this  from 
Gerard  Croese  ''Etiam  Quakeri  Fennum  non  amplius^  ut 
ante^  ita  amahant  ac  magnifaciehant^  quidam  aversahantur 
ac  fugiehanty  Bonrepaux  writes  practically  the  same  to 
Seignelay:  "Penn,  chef  des  Quakers^  qu'on  suit  etre  dans 
les  inter ets  du  Roi  d'Angleterre^  est  si  fort  decrie  parmi  ceux 
de  son  parti  qu'ils  n'ont  plus  aucune  confiance  en  lui^ 

Yet  none  of  the  journals  of  the  time  written  or  kept  by 
those  intimate  witii  Penn  substantiate  this.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  find  that  Henry  Gouldney  writing  to  Sir  John 
Rodes,  says  "As  to  our  friend,  W.  P.,  he  was  fully  clerd 
without  any  objection  the  last  term — I  shoewd  him  thine, 
and  his  dear  love  is  to  thee  and  thy  Mother."  Penn  is  also 
charged  by  Macauley  with  being  the  King's  representative 
in  the  matter  of  the  possible  instillation  of  the  Papal  Bishop 
of  Oxford  at  Magdalene  College.  There  was  nothing  dis- 
honorable in  this  service,  as  Penn  was  the  acknowledged 
friend  and  intimate  of  the  King,  and  he  was  an  enlightened 


190  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


gentleman  who  stood  with  his  friends,  whether  Papists  or 
Quakers  without  shame." 

Again  in  1690,  under  William  and  Mary,  Macauley  says, 
"The  conduct  of  Penn  was  scarcely  less  scandalous.  He  was 
a  zealous  and  busy  Jacobite;  and  his  new  way  of  life  had 
been  to  moral  purity.  It  was  hardly  possible  to  be  at  once 
a  consistent  Quaker  and  a  courtier;  but  it  was  utterly  im- 
possible to  be  at  once  a  consistent  Quaker  and  a  conspirator. 
It  is  melancholy  to  relate  that  Penn,  while  professing  to 
consider  that  even  defensive  war  as  sinful,  did  everything 
in  his  power  to  bring  a  foreign  army  into  the  heart  of  his 
own  country.  He  wrote  to  inform  James  that  the  adher- 
ents of  the  Prince  of  Orange  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as 
an  appeal  to  the  sword,  and  that,  if  England  were  now  in- 
vaded from  France  or  from  Ireland,  the  number  of  Royalists 
would  appear  to  be  greater  than  ever.  Avaux  thought  this 
letter  so  important  that  he  sent  a  translation  of  it  to  Lewis." 

Penn  was  arrested  after  this  as  he  came  from  the  funeral 
of  George  Fox,  but  his  explanation  was  accepted  by  Wil- 
liam, as  he  boldly  declared  that  James  was  his  friend. 
Macauley  says,  "Penn's  proceedings  had  not  escaped  the  ob- 
servation of  the  government.  Warrants  had  been  out 
against  him;  and  he  had  been  taken  into  custody;  but  the 
evidence  against  him  had  not  been  such  as  would  support 
a  charge  of  high  treason;  he  had,  as,  with  all  his  faults  he 
deserved  to  have,  many  friends  in  every  part;  therefore 
soon  regained  his  liberty,  and  returned  to  his  plots." 

There  is  evidently  so  much  prejudice  in  the  mind  of  the 
historian  regarding  William  Penn  that  it  is  difficult  to  jus- 
tify him,  by  a  fair  balancing  of  the  facts  and  conditions. 
Among  those  who  lived  with  him,  Penn  was  a  high-minded. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


191 


pure  and  honorable  gentleman.  Even  Pepys  in  his  diary, 
inimitable  for  its  mimitic  descriptions,  takes  a  fling  at  Penn: 
"Here  comes  Will  Pen  to  call  upon  my  wife.  He  is  now 
a  Quaker  or  some  much  melancholy  thing."  To  be  a  Qua- 
ker in  the  time  of  Pepys  was  indeed  a  melancholy  circum- 
stance. 

That  the  Quakers  were  more  or  less  fanatical,  that  in 
their  zeal  they  made  too  much  of  non-essentials,  "wearing 
the  hat,"  "taking  oaths,"  saying  "thee  and  thou,"  can  be 
admitted;  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  these  people 
were  endeavoring  to  live  the  life  outlined  by  Christ,  and 
that  they  accepted  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  literally. 
"Swear  not  at  all,"  meant  to  them  that  one  was  not  to  take 
an  oath  under  any  circumstances.  It  was  a  non-essential 
from  the  standpoint  of  1913,  as  were  many  other  so-called 
"peculiarities."  It  was  the  essence  of  the  religion  of  the 
Friends  in  the  time  of  Fox,  but  when  the  Quakers  are  crit- 
icised in  the  twentieth  century  as  mad  fanatics,  as  insulting 
the  clerg}%  as  prophesying  evil  to  those  who  abused  them, 
as  insulting  men  in  power  and  the  nobility  b)^  writing  to 
them  and  pointing  out  the  error  of  their  ways,  it  should 
always  be  borne  in  mind  what  the  Quaker  movement  really 
meant.  It  was  not  a  propaganda  to  establish  a  new  religion, 
it  was  not  an  attempt  to  establish  a  new  sect  or  church; 
but  was  a  mighty  protest,  a  tremendous  rebuke  against  the 
sensuality,  immorality,  the  public  and  private  debauchery 
of  the  times. 

With  marvelous  perseverance  these  humble  folks  seemed 
to  have  been  called  upon  to  introduce  in  1650  and  later, 
the  code  of  morals  recognized  as  essential  by  every  Chris- 
tian church  in  1912-13.   They  launched  a  twentieth  century 


192  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 


code  of  morals  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago.  Little 
wonder  they  were  looked  upon  as  one  would  a  mad  dog, 
and  an  attempt  made  in  England  and  America  to  exter- 
minate them.  Little  wonder  their  ears  were  cut  off,  their 
tongues  bored,  their  foreheads  branded,  and  laws  conceived 
to  render  it  legal.  The  Quakers  were  looked  upon  as  mon- 
sters and  extremely  dangerous.  Let  us  glance  at  the  reason 
why  their  actions  so  amazed  the  rest  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  sorry  picture,  this  cause  that  forced  George  Fox 
to  raise  his  voice  and  cry  to  Heaven  for  reform,  and  it  can 
only  be  understood  by  glancing  at  the  actual  picture  of  the 
time. 

To  obtain  an  idea  of  social  customs  in  the  time  of  Fox, 
we  must  imagine  the  best  society  to-day  with  every  moral 
sense  degraded.  One  has  but  to  read  Macauley,  or  better 
Pepys,  or  any  of  the  works  of  the  time.  Fisher,  the  bio- 
grapher of  Penn,  says  the  age  was  full  of  the  most  extraord- 
inary contradictions  existing  side  by  side.  Such  men  as 
Milton  or  Dryden,  Locke  or  Penn,  daily  heard  language  and 
saw  spectacles  on  the  streets  that  would  amaze  and  horrify 
the  modern  world.  The  private  life  of  Charles  II.  was  well 
known  as  that  of  a  degenerate  of  the  lowest  type.  While 
the  King's  informers  were  denouncing  Fox  for  wearing  his 
hat,  the  King's  "lords  and  ladies"  are  said  to  have  indulged 
in  disgraceful  orgies.  It  is  a  gross  story  of  an  age  when 
literature,  the  stage,  and  conversation  were  low  and  debased, 
and  morality  at  such  a  low  ebb  that  it  existed  but  in  name 
among  the  nobility  and  upper  classes.  It  was  this  state  of 
affairs,  the  every  day  open  orgies  of  the  aristocracy  and  their 
imitators,  which  oppressed  Fox  and  spurred  him  on  to  re- 
buke the  world  and  demand  a  return  to.  true  Christianity 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  193 

and  moral  living.  The  Quakers  could  not  take  to  the 
sword  as  did  Cromwellians,  so  they  unsheathed  their 
tongues  and  laid  about  them,  in  the  high-ways,  at  bars, 
inns,  cock  and  bull  fights,  bull  and  badger  baitings,  at  prize 
fights,  in  churches,  cathedrals,  in  letters  to  kings  and 
popes;  and  so  loud  a  noise  did  they  create,  so  keen  were 
their  vocal  sallies  and  thrusts  that  they  arrested  the  atten- 
tion of  the  entire  world,  and  framed  a  protest  that  still 
hangs  high  among  the  stars  of  the  modern  pagan  night. 

Fox  and  his  followers  were  sometimes  insulting;  they 
seemed  to  outrage  decency  even  according  to  modern 
standards  by  interfering  with  clergymen  in  churches;  they 
doubtless  did  break  the  laws  by  refusing  to  pay  tithes, 
attending  conventicles,  refusing  to  unhat  in  the  presence  of 
superiors;  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  sane  man  or 
woman  to-day,  who  after  understanding  the  moral  situation 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  who  would  not  say  that  the 
Quakers  were  entirely  justified  in  their  actions. 

The  peculiar  quality  of  justice  dealt  out  to  the  Quakers 
is  well  shown  in  the  case  of  William  Penn,  who  was  being 
tried  for  wearing  his  hat : 

"Penn. — Shall  I  plead  to  an  indictment  that  hath  no 
foundation  in  law?  If  it  contain  the  law  you  say  I  have 
broken,  why  should  you  decline  to  produce  that  law,  since 
it  will  be  impossible  for  the  jury  to  determine  or  agree  to 
bring  in  their  verdict,  who  hath  not  the  law  produced,  by 
which  they  shall  measure  the  truth  of  this  indictment,  and 
the  guilt  or  contrary,  of  my  act. 

Recorder. — You  are  a  saucy  fellow;  speak  to  the  indict- 
ment. 

Penn. — I  say  it  is  my  place  to  speak  to  the  matter  of  the 

13 


194  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND 

law ;  I  am  arraigned  a  prisoner ;  my  liberty,  which  is  next  to 
life  itself,  is  now  concerned;  you  are  many  mouths  and  ears 
against  me,  it  is  hard,  I  say  again,  unless  you  shew  me,  and 
the  people,  the  law  you  ground  your  indictment  upon,  I 
shall  take  it  for  granted,  your  proceedings  are  merely 
arbitrary. 

Observer. — (At  this  time  several  upon  the  bench  urged, 
hard  upon  the  prisoner,  to  bear  him  down.) 

Recorder. — The  question  is,  whether  you  are  guilty  of 
this  indictment? 

Penn. — The  question  is  not  whether  I  am  guilty  of  this 
indictment  but  whether  this  indictment  be  legal.  It  is  too 
general  and  imperfect  to  answer,  to  say  it  is  the  common 
law,  unless  we  know  both  where  and  what  it  is;  for  where 
there  is  no  law,  there  is  no  transgression,  and  that  law  which 
is  not  in  being,  is  so  far  from  being  common,  that  it  is  no 
law  at  all. 

Recorder. — You  are  an  impertinent  fellow;  will  you 
teach  the  Court  what  law  is?  It's  lex  non  scripta,  that 
which  many  have  studied  thirty  or  forty  years  to  know,  and 
would  you  have  me  tell  you  in  a  moment? 

Penn. — Certainly,  if  the  common  law  be  so  hard  to  be 
understood,  it's  far  from  being  common,  but  if  the  Lord 
Coke  in  his  Institutes  be  of  any  consideration,  he  tells  us 
that  common  law  is  common  right;  and  that  common  right 
is  the  great  charter  of  privileges,  confirmed  9  Hen.  III. 
29;  25  Edw.  III.  8;  Coke's  Insts.  2  p,  56. 

Recorder. — Sir,  you  are  a  troublesome  fellow,  and  it  is 
not  for  the  honor  of  the  Court  to  suffer  you  to  go  on. 

Penn. — I  have  asked  but  one  question,  and  you  have  not 
answered  me;  though  the  rights  and  privileges  of  every 
Englishman  be  concerned  in  it. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  ENGLAND  195 


Recorder. — Take  him  away  ;  my  Lord,  if  you  take  not 
some  course  with  this  pestilent  fellow,  to  stop  his  mouth, 
we  shall  not  be  able  to  do  anything  tonight. 

Mayor. — Take  him  away,  take  him  away  I  turn  him  into 
the  Baledock." 

The  inclination  to  quote  the  distinguished  justice  in  the 
case  of  Bardell  against  Pickwick,  in  a  parallel  case,  is  almost 
irresistible. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  QUAKERS  UNDER  JAMES  THE  SECOND 
AND  WILLIAM  AND  MARY. 

1685-1702. 

The  decade  between  1676  and  1686  was  a  momentous 
period  among  the  Quakers  and  in  the  history  of  England. 
It  saw  the  founding  of  Pennsylvania.  The  first  Latin 
version  of  Barclay's  "Apology"  was  now  issued,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  an  English  edition  in  two  years.  Bunyon  was 
writing  his  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  Now  came  the  intrigues 
which  led  to  the  death  of  Charles  the  Second  and  the  coro- 
nation of  James  the  First;  the  latter,  the  first  silver 
lining  the  Quakers  had  seen  in  the  clouds  of  their 
persecution  since  the  early  days  of  Cromwell.  The 
innumerable  and  violent  warfares  of  intrigue  carried 
on  among  the  politicians  who  surrounded  Charles, 
each  minister  trying  to  supplant  the  other,  created 
a  feeling  of  unrest  in  England  difficult  to  allay.  Lord 
Halifax,  the  Duke  of  York,  William  Penn's  friend,  shown 
with  him  in  the  famous  picture  of  the  old  Bull  and  Mouth 
meeting,  Godolphin  and  others,  were  notable  figures.  The 
King,  vacilating,  good  naturedly  Machiavellian  to  the  last, 
compromised  with  the  last  courtier  who  had  his  attention. 
In  all  the  kingdom  there  were  but  five  million,  two  hundred 
thousand,  five  hundred  subjects,  not  equal  to  the  population 
of  London  to-day;  yet  the  activity  of  the  polititians  in 
1682-3  in  London  alone,  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  its 
size ;  all  of  which  had  a  direct  relation  to  the  Quakers  who 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


197 


had  enemies  in  every  faction,  clique  or  party.  They  were 
tossed  about  like  a  ball  from  one  to  another  on  every  pos- 
sible excuse,  from  saying  thou  to  refusing  to  pay  tithes,  or 
from  wearing  their  hats  to  attending  meetings. 

The  reign  of  Charles  had  been  disastrous  to  Quakers  in- 
directly, but  had  stimulated  Quakerism.  They  had  flour- 
ished under  a  series  of  tortures  too  disagreeable  to  include 
in  a  popular  history  when  the  book  of  Martyrs  is  designed 
especially  to  present  such  melancholy  spectacles.  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  imagine  the  England  of  these  days,  when  cattle 
thieves  (masstroopers)  devasted  the  country  and  were  kept 
down  by  bloodhounds  to  hunt  them  and  the  free  hooters. 
Famous  country  seats  as  well  as  farm  houses,  were  fortified. 
Travelling  abroad  was  unsafe.  Macaulay  says  that  no  man 
ventured  into  the  country  without  making  his  will.  Yet 
Penn,  Fox,  Howgill,  Pennington,  Fell,  Fox  the  younger, 
Christopher  Holder,  Burnyeat  and  others  were  always 
abroad.  No  one,  not  even  judges,  travelled  without  a 
guard.  Food  had  to  be  carried,  as  there  were  no  hotels  or 
inns,  and  half  civilized,  wild  people  were  to  be  met  with 
here  and  there,  a  menace  to  the  unprotected.  The  national 
revenue  was  less  than  a  sixth  of  that  of  France,  yet  the  ex- 
cise in  the  last  year  of  the  King  produced  over  two  million 
dollars.  Even  the  chimneys  were  taxed,  and  if  the  hearth 
money  was  not  forthcoming,  the  furniture  was  taken,  and 
the  people  evicted,  as  the  last  resort,  and  imprisoned  for 
debt.  A  million  dollars  a  year  was  taken  from  chimney 
taxes  alone. 

"The  good  old  dames,  whenever  they  the  chimney  men 
espied, 

Unto  their  nooks  they  haste  away. 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


Their  pots  and  pipkins  hide. 
There  is  not  one  old  dame  in  ten, 
And  search  the  nation  through, 
But  if  you  lack  of  chimney  men, 
Will  spare  a  curse  or  two." 

Pepys. 

There  was  a  small  standing  army  of  about  six  thousand 
men.  A  private  could  knock  his  colonel  down,  safe  in  the 
knowledge  that  his  punishment  would  be  that  for  mere  as- 
sault and  battery.  His  pay,  if  in  the  foot  guards,  was  ten 
pence  per  diem,  and  in  the  line  nine  pence.  The  army  was 
certainly  not  a  menace  to  the  rights  of  the  people  now,  and 
was  a  melancholy  comparison  to  the  splendid  columns  rear- 
ed by  Cromwell.  On  the  other  hand,  the  navy  was  the 
pride  of  the  country  though  it  would  not  have  borne  close 
investigation.  The  army  and  navy  were  kept  on  short  al- 
lowance, but,  says  Macaulay,  "The  personal  favorites  of  the 
sovereign,  his  ministers,  and  the  creatures  of  these  ministers 
were  gorged  with  public  money."  "From  the  nobleman 
who  held  the  white  staff  and  the  great  seal,"  says  Macaulay, 
"down  to  the  humblest  tide  water  and  ganger.  What 
would  now  be  called  gross  corruption  was  practiced  without 
disguise  and  without  reproach.  Titles,  places,  commis- 
sions, pardons  were  daily  sold  in  the  market  overtly  by  the 
great  dignitaries  of  the  realm;  and  every  clerk  in  every  de- 
partment imitated  to  the  best  of  his  power  the  evil  ex- 
ample." 

Macaulay  draws  the  following  picture  of  the  palace  of 
King  Charles  in  his  History  of  England.  "His  palace 
had  seldom  presented  a  gayer  or  more  scandalous  appear- 
ance than  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  the  first  of  February, 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  199 


1685.  Some  grave  persons  who  had  gone  thither,  after  the 
fashion  of  that  age,  to  pay  their  duty  to  their  sovereign,  and 
had  expected  that,  on  such  a  day,  his  court  would  wear  a 
decent  aspect,  were  struck  with  astonishment  and  horror. 
The  great  gallery  of  Whitehall,  an  admirable  relic  of  the 
magnificence  of  the  Tudors,  was  crowded  with  revellers  and 
gamblers.  The  King  sat  there  chatting  and  toying  with 
three  women  whose  charms  were  the  boast,  and  whose  vices 
were  the  disgrace,  of  three  nations.  Barbara  Palmer, 
Duchess  of  Cleveland,  was  there,  no  longer  young,  but  still 
retaining  some  traces  of  that  superb  and  voluptuous  lovli- 
ness  which  twenty  years  before  overcame  the  hearts  of  all 
men.  There  too  was  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  whose 
soft  and  infantile  features  were  lighted  up  with  the  vivac- 
ity of  France.  Hortensia  Mancini,  Duchess  of  Mazarin 
and  niece  of  the  great  Cardinal,  completed  the  group.  She 
had  been  early  removed  from  her  native  Italy  to  the  court 
where  her  uncle  was  supreme.  His  power  and  her  own  at- 
tractions had  drawn  a  crowd  of  illustrious  suitors  round 
her.  Charles  himself,  during  his  exile,  had  sought  her  hand 
in  vain.  No  gift  of  nature  or  of  fortune  seemed  to  be 
wanting  in  her.  Her  face  was  beautiful  with  the  rich 
beauty  of  the  South,  her  understanding  quick,  her  man- 
ners graceful,  her  rank  exalted,  her  possessions  immense;  but 
her  ungovernable  passions  had  turned  all  these  blessings 
into  curses.  She  had  found  the  misery  of  an  ill-assorted 
marriage  intolerable,  had  fled  from  her  husband,  had  aband- 
oned her  vast  wealth,  and,  after  having  astonished  Rome 
and  Piedmont  by  her  adventures,  had  fixed  her  abode  in 
England.  Her  house  was  the  favorite  resort  of  men  of 
wit  and  pleasure,  who,  for  the  sake  of  her  smiles  and  her 


200 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


table,  endured  her  frequent  fits  of  insolence  and  ill  humour. 
Rochester  and  Godolphin  sometimes  forgot  the  cares  of 
state  in  her  company.  Barillon  and  Saint  Evremond 
found  in  her  drawing  room  consolation  for  their  long  ban- 
ishment from  Paris.  The  learning  of  Vossius,  the  wit  of 
Waller,  were  daily  employed  to  flatter  and  amuse  her.  But 
her  diseased  mind  required  stronger  stimulants,  and  sought 
them  in  gallantry,  in  basset,  and  in  usquebaugh.  While 
Charles  flirted  with  his  three  sultanas,  Hortensia's  French 
page,  a  handsome  boy,  whose  vocal  performances  were  the 
delight  of  Whitehall,  and  were  rewarded  by  numerous  pres- 
ents of  rich  clothes,  ponies,  and  guineas,  warbled  some  amor- 
ous verses.  A  party  of  twenty  courtiers  was  seated  at  cards 
round  a  large  table  on  which  gold  was  heaped  in 
mountains." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end,  and  it  was  these 
things  which  created  and  perpetuated  Quakerism  and  the 
non-conformists.  The  King  died  a  Roman  Catholic,  ur- 
bane, clever,  good  naturedly  cynical  to  the  last;  passed 
away  apologizing  to  the  gathered  throng  of  mourners  that 
it  had  taken  him  so  long  to  die. 

King  James  was  a  Catholic  and  Westminster  Abbey  now 
saw  the  Catholic  service  for  the  first  time  in  over  a  century ; 
yet  on  his  accession  in  1685  ^bere  was  a  general  releasing  of 
Quakers,  not  to  celebrate  the  event,  as  was  often  the  custom, 
but  because  the  new  king  was  more  or  less  friendly  and  tol- 
erant, and  from  now  on  their  martyrdom  gradually  ceased. 
One  of  the  earliest  petitions  King  James  received  was  from 
the  Quakers  who  pointed  out  that  fifteen  hundred  Quakers 
had  been  imprisoned,  two  hundred  of  them  being  women; 
that  three  hundred  had  died  in  prison.    They  gave  a  list  of 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  201 


the  old  laws,  under  which  the  Quakers  were  abused  and  per- 
secuted, which  were  as  follows,  and  asked  to  have  them 
taken  from  the  statutes: 

"The  5th  of  Eliz.  ch.  23,  De  excammunicato  capiendo. 
The  23d  of  Eliz.  ch.  1 ,  for  twenty  pounds  per  month. 
The  29th  of  Eliz.  ch.  6,  for  continuation. 
The  35th  of  Eliz.  ch.  1,  for  abjuring  the  realm,  on  pain  of 
death. 

The  1st  of  Eliz.  ch.  2,  for  twelve  pence  a  Sunday. 

The  3d.  of  K.  James  ch.  4,  for  premunire,  imprisonment 

during  life,  estates  confiscated. 
The  13th  and  14th  of  K.  Charles,  against  Quakers,  &c., 

transportation. 

The  22d.  of  K.  Charles  II.  ch.  1,  against  seditious  con- 
venticles. 

The  17th  of  K.  Charles  II.  ch.  2,  against  non-conformists. 
The  27th  of  Hen.  VIII.  ch.  20,  some  few  suffer  thereupon. 

This  was  followed  by  several  other  petitions  which  cov- 
ered more  or  less  thoroughly  all  the  persecutions  to  date. 
These  addresses  were  presented  to  King  James  at  Windsor 
by  George  Whitehead,  Alexander  Parker,  Gilbert  Latay 
and  Francis  Canficld.  With  this  was  a  statement  of  the 
prisoners  by  county,  Holderness  and  the  Yorkshire  district 
leading  with  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine  victims. 

The  King's  first  movement  in  the  direction  of  liberty  of 
conscience  was  in  the  execution  of  the  following  proclama- 
tion: 

"James  R. 

Whereas  our  most  entirely  beloved  brother,  the  late  king, 
deceased,  had  signified  his  intentions  to  his  attorneys  general 
for  the  pardoning  of  such  of  his  subjects  as  had  been  suffer- 


202 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


ers  in  the  late  rebellion  for  their  loyalty,  or  whose  parents  or 
nearest  relations  had  been  sufferers  in  the  late  rebellion  for 
that  cause,  or  who  had  themselves  testified  their  loyalty  and 
affection  to  the  government,  or  were  persecuted,  convicted  or 
indicted  for  not  taking  or  refusing  to  take  the  oaths  of  al- 
legiance and  supremacy,  or  one  of  them,  or  had  been  prose- 
cuted upon  any  writ,  or  any  penalty,  or  otherwise,  in  any  of 
the  courts  of  Westminster  Hall,  or  in  any  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical courts,  for  not  coming  to  church,  or  not  receiving  the 
sacrament : 

And  whereas  the  several  persons,  whose  names  are 
mentioned  in  the  schedule  annexed  to  this  our  warrant,  have 
produced  unto  us  certificates  for  the  loyalty  and  sufferings 
of  them  and  their  families : 

Now  in  pursuance  of  the  said  will  of  our  said  most  dear 
brother,  and  in  consideration  of  the  sufferings  of  the  said 
persons,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  you  cause  all  process 
and  proceedings,  ex  officio^  as  well  against  the  said  persons 
mentioned  in  the  said  schedule  hereunto  annexed,  as  against 
all  other  persons  as  shall  hereafter  be  produced  unto  you,  to 
be  wholly  superseded  and  stayed,  and  if  any  of  the  said 
persons  be  decreed  or  pronounced  excommunicated,  or  have 
been  so  certified,  or  are  in  prison  upon  the  writ  excommuni- 
cato capiendo^  for  any  of  the  causes  aforesaid,  our  pleasure 
is,  that  you  absolve  and  cause  such  persons  to  be  absolved, 
discharged,  or  set  at  liberty,  and  that  no  process  or  proceed- 
ings whatsoever  be  hereafter  made  in  any  court  against  any 
of  the  said  persons  for  any  cause  before  mentioned,  until  our 
pleasure  therein  shall  be  further  signified. 

Given  at  our  Court  at  Whitehall,  this  eighteenth  of 
April,  1685,  in  the  first  year  of  our  reign. 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  203 


To  all  Archbishops  and  Bishops;  to  the  Chancellors  and 
Commissioners  ;  and  to  all  arch-deacons  and  their  officials, 
and  all  other  ordinarys  and  persons  executing  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction. 

By  his  Majesty's  command, 

Sunderland." 

With  these  pardons  of  Quakers  came  the  release  of  a 
number  of  Colonial  prisoners,  one  being  the  author's 
sixth  great  grandfather,  Edward  Gove,  of  Hampton 
Manor,  Hampton,  New  Hampshire.  Gove's  crime  had 
been  to  lead  an  insurrection  against  Governor  Cranfield  of 
New  Hampshire,  voluminous  accounts  of  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  colonial  history  of  New  England.  Fiske 
says: — "Within  three  years  an  arrogant  and  thieving  ruler, 
Edward  Cranfield,  had  goaded  New  Hampshire  to  acts  of 
insurrection."  Gove's  estates  were  seized,  and  he  was  ban- 
ished and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  London  for  three 
years,  serving  with  William  Penn  and  others.  On  his 
pardon,  his  estates  were  restored  to  him.  The  pardon,  which 
is  herewith  given,  and  a  photograph  of  the  original  goes 
with  the  deed  of  the  old  manor  house  at  Hampton,  which 
has  always  remained  in  the  family,  being  now  owned  by  the 
Honorable  William  B.  Gove  of  Salem,  Mass. 

The  pardon  is  as  follows: 

"James  R. 

Whereas  Edward  Gove  was  neare  three  yeares  since  ap- 
prehended, tryed  and  Condemned  for  High  Treason  in  our 
Colony  of  New  England  in  America,  and  in  June  1683  was 
committed  Prisoner  to  the  Tower  of  London.  We  have 
thought  fit  hereby  to  signify  Our  Will  and  Pleasure  to  you, 


204 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


that  you  cause  him  the  said  Edward  Gove,  to  be  inserted  in 
the  next  General  Pardon  that  shall  come  out  for  the  poor 
Convicts  of  Newgate,  without  any  condition  of  transporta- 
tion, he  giving  such  Security  for  his  good  behaviour  as  you 
shall  think  requisite,  and  for  so  doing  this  shall  be  your 
Warrant.  Given  at  Our  Court  at  Windsor  the  14th  day  of 
September  1685  in  the  first  Yeare  of  Our  Reigne. 
To  our  Trusty  and  By  his  Majesty's  command, 

Welbeloved,  Sunderland. 
The  Recorder  of  our  City 
of  London  and  all  others 
whom  it  may  concerne. 

Edward  Gove  to  be  inserted  in  ye  Generall  Pardon." 

Edward  Gove's  daughter  Hannah,  who  married  Abraham 
Clements,  remained  in  Hampton,  and  the  following  is  a 
letter  written  by  the  young  Quaker  to  her  father,  the  original 
of  which  is  still  in  the  family: 

"For  my  honoured  father  Edward  Gove,  in  the  Tower  or 
elsewhere,  I  pray  deliver  with  care. 

From  Hampton  the  31st  of  ye  First  Month  1686. 

Dear  and  kind  father,  through  God's  good  mercy  having 
this  opportunity  to  send  unto  ye,  hoping  in  ye  Lord  yt  ye 
art  in  good  health.  Dear  father  my  desire  is  yt  God  in  his 
good  mercy  would  be  pleased  to  keep  ye  both  in  body  and 
soul.  Loving  father  it  is  our  duty  to  pray  unto  God  that 
he  would  by  his  grace  give  us  good  hearts  to  pray  unto  him 
for  grace  and  strength  to  support  us  so  yt  ye  love  of  our 
hearts  and  souls  should  be  always  fixed  on  him  Whereby  we 
should  live  a  heavenly  Life  while  we  are  on  yt  earth  so  yt 
God's  blessing  may  be  with  us  always.  As  our  Saviour 
Christs  says  in  ye  world  ye  shall  have  troubles  but  in  mee 
ye  shall  have  peace. 


KI^G  CHARLES  II. 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  205 


So  in  ye  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ye  true  Light  of  the  world  there 
is  peace,  joy  and  Love,  with  strength  and  power  and  truth 
to  keep  all  those  yt  trust  in  him.  Dear  father  I  hope  God 
in  his  good  mercy  will  be  pleased  to  bring  us  together  Again 
to  his  glory  and  our  good  interest  ye. 

Let  us  hear  from  ye  all  opportunityes  as  may  bee  for  it  is 
great  joy  to  hear  from  ye  father.  I  have  one  little  daugh- 
ter. My  husband  is  troubled  with  a  could.  He  re- 
members his  duty  to  ye. 

So  no  more  at  present.  I  rest  thy  Dutiful  son  and 
daughter, 

Abraham  Clements, 
Hannah  (Gove)  Clements. 

Not  only  were  the  Quakers  now  unmolested,  but  the 
tables  were  turned,  and  many  of  the  spies,  false  witnesses, 
and  guilty  justices  were  arrested.  One  was  John  Hilton, 
who  was  committed  on  the  following  warrant  here  given,  as 
the  first  rebuff  to  the  swarm  of  enemies  that  had  been  at- 
tracted to  the  Quakers  and  their  meetings  as  informers  for 
what  they  could  make  out  of  it: 

"To  the  Keeper  of  Newgate: 

Receive  into  your  custody  the  body  of  John  Hilton,  here- 
with sent  you,  being  charged  upon  oath  before  me,  for  com- 
pounding several  warrants  under  my  hand  and  seal,  for 
levying  for  several  sums  of  money  on  persons  convicted  for 
being  at  several  conventicles  in  Kent,  London,  and  Middle- 
sex; and  being  also  indicted  for  the  same  in  the  several 
counties  aforesaid,  and  the  bills  found  against  him;  and 
also  that  he,  the  said  John  Hilton,  hath  refused  to  obey  the 
Right  Honorable   Sir    Edward    Herbert,    Lord  Chief 


2o6        JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


Justice's  Warrant.    And  him  safely  keep,  until  he  shall  be 

discharged  by  due  course  of  law.    And  for  so  doing  this 

shall  be  your  warrant. 

Dated  the  23rd  of  December  1685. 

Tho.  Jenner,  Recorder. 

Let  notice  be  given  to  me  before  he  be  discharged." 

The  unfortunate  Duke  of  Monmouth,  illegitimate  son  of 
Charles,  now  appeared  off  the  coast  of  England  with  several 
men  of  war,  but  was  defeated  in  the  engagement  that  fol- 
lowed, and  subsequently  died  on  the  block.  The  Earl  of 
Argyle  attempted  a  rebellion  in  Scotland  against  the  King, 
and  was  sentenced  to  death  by  Jeffries  who  inspired  Eng- 
land with  all  the  terror  of  a  Jonathan  Wild  by  the  ferocity 
of  his  nature.  The  Friends  now  petitioned  the  Lords, 
Burgomasters  and  Rulers  of  the  City  of  Embden  in  East 
Friesland,  thanking  them  for  a  decision  to  permit  Quakers 
to  live  in  their  city  with  complete  liberty  of  conscience. 
The  King  now  displayed  his  complete  clemency  by  ordering 
the  release  of  all  Quakers  everywhere  in  his  dominions,  even 
the  West  Indies  and  Barbadoes.  One  of  the  last  petitions 
from  imprisoned  Quakers  was  as  follows;  it  was  signed  by 
sixteen  Friends  who  had  been  in  jail  from  two  to  fifteen 
years : 

"To  chief  Justice  Herbert  and  Judge  Wright^  assigned 
to  hold  assizes^  and  jail- delivery  for  the  western  circuity  at 
Wells  for  the  county  of  Somerset^  the  thirtieth  of  the  month 
called  March^  1686. 

Several  of  the  people  called  Quakers,  now  prisoners  in 
the  jail  at  Ivelchester,in  the  county  of  Somerset,  on  behalf 
of  themselves  and  many  others  of  the  same  people,  in  humil- 
ity show. 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


207 


That  since  the  wise  Disposer  of  all  things  hath  ordered 
your  employment  in  this  honorable  service,  to  relieve  the 
oppressed,  and  deliver  the  captives;  and  since  King  James 
II  that  now  is,  hath  committed  part  of  his  clemency  to  your 
custody,  to  distribute  the  same  as  the  Lord  hath  inclined  his 
heart;  and  having  taken  particular  notice  of  our  sufferings, 
and  signified  his  will  and  pleasure,  that  we,  the  people  com- 
monly called  Quakers,  should  receive  the  full  benefit  of  his 
general  pardon,  with  all  possible  ease;  which  grace  and 
favor  we  do  with  all  thankfulness,  acknowledge  to  God  as 
the  chief  author,  who  hath  the  hearts  of  kings  at  his  dis- 
posal; and  to  the  King,  as  being  ready  herein  to  mind  that 
which  the  Lord  inclined  his  heart  unto;  and  not  without 
hope  to  find  the  like  opportunity  to  render  to  you  our  hearty 
thanks,  for  the  full  accomplishment  of  that  which  our  God 
allows,  and  the  King  so  readily  grants  us;  and  also  hearing 
the  report  of  your  nobility  and  moderation,  in  managing 
this  weighty  trust  committed  to  you,  we  are  emboldened 
thus  to  address  ourselves,  though  in  plainness  of  speech,  yet 
in  sincerity  of  heart,  to  lay  before  you,  that  we  have  several 
years  been  prisoner'^  in  the  jail  aforesaid,  not  for  any  plot- 
ting against  the  king  or  government,  or  harm  done  to  his  sub- 
jects; our  peaceable  lives  have  manifested  our  fidelity  to  the 
King,  and  love  to  our  neighbors,  it  being  contrary  to  our 
principles  to  do  otherwise ;  but  only  for  conscience  sake,  be- 
cause in  obedience  to  Christ  Jesus,  we  dare  not  swear  at  all, 
or  forbear  to  worship  God,  as  he  hath  ordained,  nor  con- 
form to  those  worships  which  we  have  no  faith  in;  which 
to  omit  the  one,  or  practice  the  other,  we  should  therein  sin, 
and  so  wound  our  consciences,  and  break  our  peace  with 
God:  and  what  good  then  should  our  lives  do  us,  if  we 
might  enjoy  so  much  of  the  world's  favor  and  friendship. 


2o8 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


Our  humble  request  therefore  to  you  is,  to  consider  and 
compassionate  our  suffering  condition,  and  improve  the 
power  and  authority  that  God  and  the  king  hath  entrusted 
you  withal,  for  our  relief  and  liberty ;  we  still  resolving,  and 
hoping  through  God's  assistance,  honor  to  the  king,  and  hon- 
esty to  all  his  subjects,  by  our  godly,  humble,  and  peaceable 
conversation.  The  particular  causes  of  our  imprisonments 
are  herewith  attested,  under  our  keeper's  hand.  And  we 
further  pray,  that  mercenary  informers,  and  envious  prose- 
cutors against  us,  only  for  conscience  sake,  may,  according 
to  your  wisdom  and  prudence,  be  discouraged  from  pros- 
ecuting such  actions;  by  which  many  industrious  and  con- 
scientious families  and  persons  are  in  danger  of  being  ruined; 
and  we  encouraged  in  our  diligence  in  our  respective 
callings,  and  may  enjoy  the  benefit  of  our  industry;  and  so 
shall  we  be  the  better  to  perform  with  cheerfulness  the 
duties  we  owe  to  God,  the  king,  and  all  men.  The  Lord 
guide  you  in  judgment,  and  more  and  more  incline  your 
hearts  to  love  mercy,  and  do  justice,  and  grant  you  the  re- 
ward thereof ;  which  is  truly  our  desire  and  prayer." 

The  Friends  appreciating  the  clemency  of  the  King,  now 
drew  up  the  following  address: 

*'To  King  James  II.,  over  England,  &c. 

The  humble  and  thankful  address  of  several  of  the  king's 
subjects,  commonly  called  Quakers,  in  and  about  the  city 
of  London,  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  those  of  their  com- 
munion. 

May  it  please  the  king. 

Though  we  are  not  the  first  in  this  way,  yet  we  hope  we 
are  not  the  least  sensible  of  the  great  favors  we  are  come  to 
present  the  king  our  humble,  open,  and  hearty  thanks  for; 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


209 


since  no  people  have  received  greater  benefits,  as  well  by 
opening  our  prison  doors,  as  by  his  late  excellent  and 
Christian  declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience ;  none  having 
more  severely  suffered,  nor  stood  more  generally  exposed  to 
the  malice  of  ill  men,  upon  the  account  of  religion;  and 
though  we  entertain  this  act  of  mercy  with  all  the  ack- 
nowledgements of  a  persecuted  and  grateful  people ;  yet  we 
must  needs  say,  it  doth  the  less  surprise  us,  since  it  is  what 
some  of  us  have  known  to  have  been  the  declared  principle 
of  the  king,  as  well  long  before,  as  since,  he  came  to  the 
throne  of  his  ancestors. 

And  as  we  rejoice  to  see  the  day  that  a  king  of  England 
should  from  his  royal  seat  so  universally  assert  this  glorious 
principle,  that  conscience  ought  not  to  be  constrained,  nor 
people  forced  for  matters  of  mere  religion  (the  want  of 
which  happy  conduct  in  government,  has  been  the  desola- 
tion of  countries,  and  reproach  of  religion)  ;  so  we  do  with 
humble  and  sincere  hearts,  render  to  God  first  and  the  King 
next,  our  sensible  acknowledgements ;  and  because  they  can- 
not be  better  expressed  than  in  a  godly,  peaceable,  and  duti- 
ful life,  it  shall  be  our  endeavor,  with  God's  help,  always 
to  approve  ourselves  the  king's  faithful  and  loving  subjects; 
and  we  hope  that  after  this  gracious  step  the  king  hath  made 
toward  the  union  of  his  people,  and  security  of  their  com- 
mon interest,  has  had  a  due  consideration,  there  will  be  no 
room  left  for  those  fears  and  jealousies  that  might  render 
the  king's  reign  imeasy,  or  any  of  them  unhappy. 

That  which  remains,  great  prince,  for  us  to  do,  is  to  be- 
seech Almighty  God,  by  whom  kings  reign,  and  princes 
decree  justice,  to  inspire  thee  more  and  more  with  his  ex- 
cellent wisdom  and  understanding,  to  pursue  this  Christian 
14 


210 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


design  of  ease  to  all  religious  dissenters,  with  the  most  agree- 
able and  lasting  methods :  And  we  pray  God  to  bless  the 
king,  his  royal  famil)^  and  people  with  grace  and  peace;  and 
that  after  a  long  and  prosperous  reign  here,  he  may  receive 
a  better  crown  amongst  the  blessed. 

Which  is  the  prayer  of,  &c." 

Another  address  was  drawn  up  at  the  London  Yearly 
Meeting,  and  was  presented  at  Windsor  by  William  Penn, 
who  was  now  in  London. 

"To  King  James  II.,  over  England,  &c. 

The  humble  and  grateful  acknowledgements  of  his  peace- 
able subjects  called  Quakers,  in  this  kingdom. 

From  their  usual  T early  Meeting  in  London^  the  igth 
day  of  the  ^hird  months  vulgarly  called  May,  1687. 

We  cannot  but  bless  and  praise  the  name  of  Almighty 
God,  who  hath  the  hearts  of  princes  in  his  hand,  that  he 
hath  inclined  the  king  to  hear  the  cries  of  his  suffering  sub- 
jects for  conscience-sake;  and  we  rejoice,  that  instead  of 
troubling  him  with  complaints  of  our  sufferings,  he  hath 
given  us  so  eminent  an  occasion  to  present  him  with  our 
thanks.  And  since  it  hath  pleased  the  king  out  of  his  great 
compassion,  thus  to  commiserate  our  afflicted  condition, 
which  hath  so  particularly  appeared  by  his  gracious  proclam- 
ation and  warrants  last  year,  whereby  above  twelve  hundred 
prisoners  were  released  from  their  severe  imprisonments, 
and  many  others  from  spoil  and  ruin  in  their  estates  and 
properties,  and  his  princely  speech  in  council,  and  Christian 
declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience,  in  which  he  doth  not 
only  express  his  aversion  to  all  force  upon  conscience,  and 
grant  all  his  dissenting  subjects  an  ample,  liberty  to  worship 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


211 


God,  in  the  way  they  are  persuaded  is  most  agreeable  to  his 
will,  but  gives  them  his  kingly  word  the  same  shall  continue 
during  his  reign;  we  do,  as  our  friends  of  this  city  have  al- 
ready done,  render  the  king,  our  humble.  Christian  and 
thankful  acknowledgements,  not  only  on  behalf  of  our- 
selves, but  with  respect  to  our  friends  throughout  England 
and  Wales;  and  pray  God  with  all  our  hearts,  to  bless  and 
preserve  thee,  O  king,  and  those  under  thee  in  so  good  a 
work:  And  as  we  can  assure  the  king  it  is  well  accepted  in 
the  counties  whence  we  came,  so  we  hope  the  good  effects 
thereof,  for  the  peace,  trade  and  prosperity  of  the  kingdom, 
will  produce  such  a  concurrence  from  the  parliament,  as  may 
secure  it  to  our  posterity  in  after-times;  and  while  we  live, 
it  shall  be  our  endeavor  through  God's  grace,  to  demean  our- 
selves as  in  conscience  to  God,  and  duty  to  the  king,  we  are 
obliged. 

His  peaceable,  loving. 

And  faithful  subjects." 

The  king  replied  most  affably  as  follows : 
"(jentlemen, 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  address.  Some  of 
you  know,  I  am  sure  you  do,  Mr.  Penn,  that  it  was  always 
my  principle  that  conscience  ought  not  to  be  forced,  and 
that  all  men  ought  to  have  the  liberty  of  their  consciences. 
And  what  I  have  promised  in  my  declaration,  I  will  con- 
tinue to  perform  as  long  as  I  live,  and  I  hope  before  I  die  to 
settle  it,  so  that  after-ages  shall  have  no  reason  to  alter  it." 

In  this  year  on  the  thirteenth  of  April,  Christopher  Holder 
died.  He  was  buried  at  Hazell,  in  the  parish  of  Almonds- 
bury.    He  had  been  a  minister  for  thirty-three  years,  and 


212        JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


serves  as  an  illustration  of  how  the  Friends  lived  down 
the  terrible  afflictions  that  were  their  lot.  Crippled,  beaten, 
scourged,  banished,  one  ear  cut  off,  he  never  once  shrank 
from  the  conscientious  line  of  his  duty.  Of  him  Bowden, 
the  historian  says,  "Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the 
upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace." 

The  Quakers  were  now  unmolested.  They  wore  their 
hats  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  and  he  recognized  that  it 
was  a  part  of  their  belief,  and  paid  no  attention  to  it;  but 
that  he  did  see  the  humor  of  the  situation  is  evident  when  a 
Quaker  appeared  before  him  and  did  not  uncover  his  head, 
the  king  immediately  removed  his  hat  whereupon  the  Quaker 
said,  "Thee  need  not  remove  thy  hat  to  me."  "You  are 
not  aware  of  the  custom  of  court,"  replied  the  king.  "In 
the  royal  presence  but  one  may  wear  a  hat.  If  you  wear 
your's,  I  will  remove  mine,"  which  he  did,  standing  with  it 
under  his  arm,  doubtless  later  laughing  heartily  over  the  in- 
cident. Whether  the  sober  Quaker  enjoyed  it,  or  saw  the 
point  is  a  question.  It  is  more  than  remarkable  that  James 
should  so  completely  have  given  the  Friends  freedom  of 
conscience;  but  giving  him  full  credit  for  the  best  of 
motives,  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  was  influenced  to 
some  extent  by  the  fact  that  the  Papist  enjoyed  all  the  priv- 
ileges of  the  freedom  of  conscience  afforded  the  Quakers, 
and  also  that  he  was  an  intimate  friend  of  William  Penn. 

The  King  did  not  add  to  his  popularity  by  permitting 
the  Jesuits  to  erect  a  college  in  the  Savoy,  or  by  dispossess- 
ing the  Protestant  fellows  at  Magdalene  College,  Oxford,  in 
favor  of  Romanists.  The  climax  came  when  the  Pope's 
nuncio  D'Adda  appeared  in  state  at  Windsor.  The  king 
had  given  orders  that  the  statement  regarding  the  liberty 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  213 


of  conscience  should  be  received  in  the  churches,  but  the 
Episcopal  bishops  preferred  to  neglect  this.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  six  bishops  petitioned  the  king 
not  to  insist  on  this,  as  in  their  estimation  it  was  illegal, 
which  was  of  course  a  subterfuge.  The  king  promptly  had 
them  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower,  and  the  extraordinary 
spectacle  was  witnessed  of  the  Quakers  visiting  their  ancient 
enemy  now  in  jail.  This  was  interesting,  illustrating  the 
charity  of  the  Quakers  and  their  forgiving  disposition. 

Barclay  had  evidence  that  certain  bishops  had  been  the 
means  of  securing  the  imprisonment  of  Quakers  who  died  in 
jail,  yet  the  Quakers  were  forgiving.  Barclay  and  his 
friends  heaped  coals  of  fire  upon  the  heads  of  their  old 
enemies  by  visiting  them  and  doing  what  they  could  to 
comfort  them,  and  undoubtedly  used  their  influence  to  ob- 
tain their  release.  Influence,  the  Quakers  most  certainly 
had,  from  the  coronation  of  James  on,  and  one  need  not  look 
far  for  its  source.  William  Penn,  when  a  young  man  of 
fashion,  before  he  joined  the  Friends,  was  an  intimate 
friend  and  companion  of  the  Duke  of  York,  who  was  now 
King  James,  and  the  ^momentous  change  in  the  treatment  of 
Quakers  from  the  time  of  James  can  be  laid  in  a  large  meas- 
ure to  this  old  friendship.  In  a  word,  William  Penn  had 
the  ear  of  the  king,  who  while  a  devout  Catholic,  did  not 
fail  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  Quakers  lived  up  to  their 
doctrines,  and  that  their  "peculiarities"  did  not  prevent 
them  from  being  loyal  subjects  to  the  crown  and  good  citi- 
zens. 

This  friendship  is  further  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  King 
deputized  William  Penn  to  visit  the  continent  and  sound 
William  of  Orange  as  to  his  views,  as  he  was  a  possible  sue- 


214 


JAMES  IL,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


cesser  to  the  British  throne.  When  Penn  made  his  report, 
James  found  that  while  he  favored  toleration  to  the  Protes- 
tant Dissenters  and  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws  against 
them,  William  was  absolutely  opposed  to  the  abrogation  of 
laws  against  Papists,  whereupon  he  turned  against  him.  It 
is  a  strange  commentary  on  the  world  that  the  conflicts  of  re- 
ligious views  have  caused  more  trouble  and  bloodshed  than 
almost  any  other  question,  outside  of  mere  desire  of  poss- 
ession. England  was  constantly  swayed,  corrupted,  led 
into  wars,  directly  or  indirectly,  under  the  banner  of  the 
church. 

This  was  the  outlook  in  the  very  inception  of  the  reign  of 
James.  He  was  an  extreme  Papist,  and  the  majority  of 
the  English  hated  him  ;  yet  the  king  literally  flaunted  his 
views  in  the  face  of  the  people  by  surrounding  himself  with 
all  the  panoply  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  There  could  be 
but  one  end  to  this.  The  masses  began  to  fear  for  their 
rights,  they  saw  the  shadow  of  Papal  supremacy  on  the 
wall,  and  while  the  king  was  mentally  scheming  against 
William  of  Orange,  the  non-comformists  and  the  Episcopal- 
ians were  planning  to  seat  him. 

William  Henry,  Prince  of  Orange,  was  the  grandson  of 
Charles  the  First,  who  married  a  daughter  of  James.  Their 
alliance  had  been  carried  out  as  a  political  cabal  by  Charles 
the  Second,  who  thought  by  joining  the  house  of  Nassau, 
whose  head  was  a  pronounced  leader  of  the  Continental 
Protestant  alliance,  with  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
he  would  appeal  to  the  non-conformists.  That  this  was  a 
clever  diplomatic  move  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
patience  of  the  people  was  soon  exhausted.  Plans  were 
laid,  and  as  an  outcome,  William  of  Orange  entered  Eng- 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


215 


land  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  twelve  thousand  men;  and 
James,  the  best  friend  the  Quakers  had,  fled  to  France  to 
save  his  life  from  the  non-conformists  malcontents,  and  the 
High  Church  Party.  During  the  movements  which  led  up 
to  the  seating  of  William  and  Mary,  William  Penn,  who 
next  to  George  Fox,  was  the  most  influential  Quaker,  be- 
came a  suspect.  It  was  known  that  he  was  an  intimate  of 
the  deposed  king,  not  merely  because  he  had  been  commen- 
ded to  the  king  on  the  deathbed  of  his  father,  but  because 
there  was  a  strong  friendship  between  the  men.  They  were 
true  friends,  and  all  knew  it.  As  a  result,  the  enemies  of 
the  Quakers  denounced  Penn  as  a  Jesuit  in  disguise,  charged 
him  with  all  the  crimes  in  the  calendar,  and  finally  he  was 
ordered  to  appear  before  the  Lords  of  the  Council. 

The  Friends  were  again  in  diffculties  regarding  the  pay- 
ment of  tithes,  and  the  taking  of  the  oath,  and  many  trials 
were  held.  George  Fox  was  much  affected  by  the  political 
changes.  He  was,  undoubtedly,  broken  by  the  terrible  ex- 
periences he  had  had,  and  the  constant  journeying  through 
the  country,  America  and  the  continent,  and  extremely  wor- 
ried at  the  outlook.    He  says: 

"In  the  seventh  month  I  returned  to  London,  having  been 
near  three  months  in  the  country  for  my  health's  sake,  which 
was  very  much  impaired;  so  that  I  was  hardly  able  to  stay 
in  a  meeting  the  whole  time  and  often  after  a  meeting  was 
fain  to  lie  down  upon  a  bed.  Yet  did  not  my  weakness  of 
body  take  me  off  from  service  to  the  Lord;  but  I  continued 
to  labor  in  and  out  of  meetings  in  the  work  of  the  Lord;  as 
he  gave  me  opportunity  and  ability. 

I  had  not  been  long  in  London,  before  a  great  weight 
came  upon  me,  and  a  sight  the  Lord  gave  me  of  the  great 


2l6 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


bustles  and  troubles,  revolution  and  change,  which  soon 
after  came  to  pass.  In  the  sense  whereof,  and  in  the  mov- 
ings  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  I  wrote,  'A  General  Epistle 
to  Friends,  to  forewarn  them  of  the  approaching  storm; 
that  they  might  all  retire  to  the  Lord  in  whom  safety  is,'  as 
followeth : 

My  dear  friends  and  brethren  everywhere,  who  have  re- 
ceived the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  he  has  given  power 
to  become  his  sons  and  daughters;  in  him  ye  have  life  and 
peace,  and  in  his  everlasting  kingdom  that  is  an  established 
kingdom  and  cannot  be  shaken,  but  is  over  all  the  world, 
and  stands  in  his  power,  and  in  righteousnesss  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  into  which  no  unrighteousness,  nor  the  foul, 
unclean  spirit  of  the  devil  and  his  instruments  can  enter. 
Dear  friends  and  brethren,  everyone  in  the  faith  of  Jesus, 
stand  in  his  power,  who  has  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth 
given  to  him,  and  will  'rule  the  nations  with  his  rod  of  iron, 
and  dash  them  to  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel,'  that  are  not 
subject  and  obedient  to  his  power;  whose  voice  will  shake 
the  heavens,  and  the  earth,  that  that  which  may  be  shaken 
may  be  removed,  and  that  which  cannot  be  shaken  may  ap- 
pear. Stand  in  him ;  and  all  things  shall  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  him. 

And  now,  dear  friends  and  brethren,  though  these  waves, 
storms  and  tempests  be  in  the  world,  yet  you  may  all  appear 
the  harmless  and  innocent  lambs  of  Christ,  walking  in  his 
peaceable  truth,  and  keeping  in  the  word  of  power,  wisdom, 
and  patience:  and  this  Word  will  keep  you  in  the  day  of 
trials  and  temptations,  that  will  come  upon  the  whole 
world,  to  try  them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth.  For  the 
Word  of  God  was  before  the  World,  and  all  things  were 


JAiMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


217 


made  by  it:  it  is  a  tried  word,  which  gave  God's  people  in 
all  ages  wisdom,  power  and  patience.  Therefore  let  your 
dwelling  and  walking  be  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  is  called  the 
Word  of  God;  and  in  his  power,  which  is  over  all.  Set 
your  affections  on  things  that  are  above  where  Christ  sits  at 
the  right  hand  of  God  fmark)  on  those  things  which  are 
above,  where  Christ  sits;  not  those  things  that  are  below, 
which  will  change  and  pass  away.  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
God,  who  by  his  eternal  arm  and  power  hath  gathered  a 
people  to  himself,  and  hath  preserved  his  faithful  to  him- 
self, through  many  troubles  , trials  and  temptations;  his 
power  and  seed,  Christ,  is  over  all,  and  in  him  ye  have  life 
and  peace  with  God.  Therefore  in  him  all  stand,  and  see 
your  salvation,  who  is  first,  and  last,  and  the  Amen.  God 
Almighty  preserve  and  keep  you  all  in  him,  your  ark  and 
sanctuary;  for  in  him  you  are  safe  over  all  floods,  storms, 
and  tempests:  for  he  was  before  they  were:  and  will  be 
when  they  are  all  gone. 
London,  the  17th  of  the 

8th  month,  1688.  G.  F." 

To  the  unfortunate  Quakers,  whose  vital  principle 
was  peace,  there  seemed  no  end  of  war,  as  James  formed  a 
coalition  with  the  King  of  France  and  entered  Ireland 
where  he  was  defeated  in  the  battle  of  the  Boyne.  Peace 
was  again  attained,  and  the  loyal  subjects  of  William  and 
Mary  testified  their  joy  in  various  ways.  The  Quakers 
did  not  fail  to  present  an  address  to  the  King,  which  read  as 
follows : 


2i8        JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


"To  King  William  III.  over  England  &c. 

l!he  grateful  acknowledgement  of  the  people  commonly 
called  Quakers^  humbly  presented: 
May  it  please  the  King, 

Seeing  the  most  high  God,  who  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of 
men,  and  appointeth  over  them  whomsoever  he  will,  hath 
by  his  over-ruling  power  and  providence,  placed  thee  in 
dominion  and  dignity  over  these  realms;  and  by  his  divine 
favor  hath  signally  preserved  and  delivered  thee  from  many 
great  and  eminent  dangers,  and  graciously  turned  the  calam- 
ity of  war  into  the  desired  mercy  of  peace ;  we  heartily  wish 
that  we  and  all  others  concerned  may  be  truly  sensible  and 
humbly  thankful  to  Almighty  God  for  the  same,  that  the 
peace  may  be  a  lasting  and  perpetual  blessing. 

And  now,  O  king,  the  God  of  peace  having  returned  thee 
in  safety,  it  is  cause  of  joy  to  them  that  fear  him,  to  hear 
thy  good  and  seasonable  resolution  effectually  to  discour- 
age profaneness  and  immorality;  righteousness  being  that 
which  exalteth  a  nation;  and  as  the  king  has  been  tenderly 
inclined  to  give  ease  and  liberty  of  conscience  to  his  sub- 
jects of  different  persuasions  (of  whose  favors  we  have 
largely  partaken,),  so  we  esteem  it  our  duty  gratefully  to 
commemorate  and  acknowledge  the  same ;  earnestly  beseech- 
ing Almighty  God  to  assist  the  king  to  prosecute  all  these 
his  just  and  good  inclinations,  that  his  days  here  may  be 
happy  and  peaceable,  and  hereafter  he  may  partake  of  a 
lasting  crown  that  will  never  fade  away. 
London,  the  7  th  of  the  eleventh  month 
called  January  1697." 

This  was  signed  by  George  Whitehead,  Daniel  Ouare, 
Thomas  Lower,  John  Vaughton,  John  Edge  and  Gilbert 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


219 


Latey,  and  was  received  by  his  majesty  with  every  evidence 
of  good  will. 

An  act  was  now  passed  favorable  to  the  Quakers,  exempt- 
ing the  Dissenters  from  penal  laws.  The  Quakers  were 
allowed  to  hold  meetings  if  the  doors  remained  unlocked. 
George  Fox,  William  Penn  and  others  attended  the  meet- 
ings of  Parliament  daily  and  fought  for  the  repeal  of  the 
tithing  laws,  but  without  avail.  Quakers  and  all  Dissent- 
ers were  obliged  to  pay  tithes.  In  the  matter  of  taking 
the  oath,  the  following,  was  allowed  the  Quakers  as  a  sub- 
stitute : 

"I,  A.  B.,  do  sincerely  promise  and  solemnly  declare,  be- 
fore God  and  the  world,  that  I  will  be  true  and  faithful  to 
king  William  and  queen  Mary;  and  I  do  solemnly  profess 
and  declare,  that  I  do  from  my  heart  abhor,  detest,  and  re- 
nounce, as  impious  and  heretical,  that  damnable  doctrine 
and  position,  that  princes  excommunicated  or  deprived  by 
the  pope,  or  any  authority  of  the  See  of  Rome,  may  be  de- 
posed or  murdered  by  their  subjects,  or  any  other  whatso- 
ever. And  I  declare  that  no  foreign  prince,  person,  prelate, 
state,  or  potentate,  hath,  or  ought  to  have,  any  power,  juris- 
diction, superiority,  pre-eminence,  or  authority,  eccelsiasti- 
cal  or  spiritual,  within  this  realm." 

They  were  also  forced  to  declare  to  their  orthodoxy  as 
follows : 

"I,  A.  B.,  profess  faith  in  God,  the  Father,  and  in  Jesus 
Christ  his  eternal  Son,  the  true  God,  and  in  the  holy  Spirit, 
one  God,  blessed  forevermore;  and  do  acknowledge  the 
Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be  given 
by  divine  inspiration." 

George  Fox  never  abated  his  work,  yet  he  was  failing. 


220 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


He  says:  "When  I  had  staid  about  a  month  in  London, 
I  got  out  of  town  again.  For  by  reason  of  the  many  hard- 
ships I  had  undergone  in  imprisonments,  and  other  suffer- 
ings for  truth's  sake,  my  body,  was  grown  so  infirm  and 
weak,  that  1  could  not  bear  the  closeness  of  the  city  long 
together;  but  was  fain  to  go  a  little  into  the  country,  where 
I  might  have  the  benefit  of  the  fresh  air.  At  this  time  I 
went  with  my  son-in-law,  William  Mead,  to  his  country 
house  called  Gooses  in  Essex."  Again,  "About  the  middle 
of  the  first  month,  1688,9,  ^  went  to  London,  the  parliament 
then  sitting,  and  being  then  about  the  bill  of  indulgence. 
Though  I  was  weak  in  body,  and  not  well  able  to  stir  to  and 
fro,  yet  so  great  a  concern  was  upon  my  Spirit  on  behalf  of 
truth  and  friends,  that  I  attended  continually  for  many 
days,  with  others,  at  the  parliament-house,  laboring  with  the 
members,  that  the  thing  might  be  done  comprehensively 
and  effectually. 

In  this  and  other  services,  I  continued  till  towards  the  end 
of  the  second  month,  when  being  much  spent  with  continual 
labour,  I  got  out  of  town  for  a  little  while,  as  far  as  South- 
gate  and  thereabouts." 

A  result  of  his  labors,  and  those  of  his  friends,  George 
Whitehead,  Christopher  Holder  and  others,  referred  to  in 
the  above,  was  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Toleration,  a  signal 
victory  for  them  in  England  and  the  colonies,  as  by  it  Parlia- 
ment recognized  the  Quakers,  demanded  respect  for  their 
religion  from  all  men,  and  literally  exempted  English  Prot- 
estant Dissenters  from  the  Church  of  England  or  from  the 
effect  of  the  old  laws  enforcing  conformity. 

No  one  Act  in  the  history  of  England  spoke  stronger  for 
its  mental  and  moral  uplift  than  this  of  the  Calvinist,  King 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  221 

William,  who  thus  introduced  true  Christian  liberty  into 
the  country  so  long  trodden  under  the  heel  of  bigotry,  and 
merciless  intolerance. 

In  1690  the  Quakers  lost,  by  death,  one  of  their  greatest 
men  and  finest  characters,  Robert  Barclay.  It  was  Barclay, 
refined,  cultivated,  well  educated,  who  took  the  elements  of 
Quakerism  created  by  Fox  and  moulded  them  into  a  system, 
that  as  a  hypothesis  for  a  practical,  moral  uplift  has  no 
equal.  The  Quakers  now  had  a  status,  were  established  as 
having  rights  before  the  law,  and  their  meetings  and  in- 
fluence rapidly  increased  over  the  country.  They  success- 
fully prevented  a  bill  from  passing  parliament,  aimed 
against  the  publication  of  religious  books. 

In  1691,  George  Fox,  who  had  been  gradually  failing, 
passed  away.  The  later  months  he  spent  in  London,  and 
on  Sunday,  January  11,  he  attended  a  meeting  at  Grace- 
church  Street,  and  preached  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
sermons  of  his  career.  Then,  in  the  words  of  William  Penn, 
"he  triumphed  over  death,  and  was  so  even  in  his  spirit 
to  the  last  as  if  death  were  hardly  worth  notice  or  a 
mention."  William  Penn,  his  friend,  wrote  the  sad  news 
to  his  wife  at  Swarthmore.  His  words  were,  "I  am  to  be 
the  teller  to  thee  of  sorrowful  tidings,  which  are  these; 
that  thy  dear  husband,  and  my  beloved  friend,  George  Fox, 
finished  his  glorious  testimony  this  night,  about  half-an- 
hour  after  nine  o'clock,  being  sensible  to  the  last  breath. 
Oh!  he  is  gone,  and  has  left  us  with  a  storm  over  our 
heads.  Surely  in  great  mercy  to  him,  but  an  evidence  to 
us  of  sorrows  coming."  Carlyle  said,  "No  grander  thing 
was  ever  done  than  when  George  Fox  went  forth  determined 
to  find  Truth  for  himself,  and  to  battle  for  it  against  all 
superstition,  bigotry  and  intolerances." 


222 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


The  founder  of  Quakerism  lies  at  Bunhills  Friends  Bury- 
ing Ground.  One  can  say,  there  lies  a  man  who,  during  the 
most  intolerant  period  in  English  history,  held  up  his  hand 
and  rebuked  the  world.  Fearless,  consistent  in  all  things, 
he  made  the  greatest  effort  ever  attempted  to  live  the  life 
of  Christ,  as  he  saw  it. 

William  Penn  was  the  object  of  constant  attack  and 
suspicion  from  the  enemies  of  King  James  and  friends  of 
William  and  Mary.  To  have  been  the  friend  of  the  de- 
posed king  was  all  sufficient,  and  the  enemies  of  Quakers, 
who  had  been  disarmed  by  Parliament  of  their  methods  of 
attack,  now  concentrated  their  venom  on  Penn;  hoping  to 
destroy  him  and  so  strike  down  the  now  head  of  the  Quakers. 
These  attacks  were  extremely  ingenious  and  were  aided  by 
the  fact  that  William  Penn  disdained  to  deny  his  friend- 
ship, boldly  stated  that  James  had  been  and  still  was  his 
friend ;  but  as  a  loyal  Quaker,  he  had  affirmed  his  allegiance 
to  King  William. 

There  were  many  persons  in  London  at  this  time,  known 
as  Jacobites  and  Nonjurors,  who  refused  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  and  who  never  ceased  their  attempts  to 
restore  King  James.  The  enemies  of  Penn  and  Quakerism 
did  all  they  could  to  connect  Penn  with  them,  and  he  was 
openly  and  repeatedly  charged  with  being  a  Jesuit  in  dis- 
guise. Letters  to  him  from  King  James  at  the  Court  of 
Louis  XIV  were  intercepted  and  he  was  again  brought 
before  the  Privy  Council;  but  he  demanded  an  interview 
with  the  king,  who  was  fully  satisfied  with  his  explanation 
of  the  correspondence. 

During  the  king's  absence  in  Ireland  leading  the  army, 
a  plot  was  discovered  in  Scotland,  and  the  Queen  arrested 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


223 


all  suspects,  among  them  William  Penn,  the  officers  taking 
him  into  custody  as  he  was  returning  from  the  funeral  of 
his  friend  George  Fox.  Lord  Preston,  engaged  in  a  plot 
to  seat  King  James,  stated  that  Penn  was  one  of  the  con- 
spirators, and  another  plotter,  one  William  Fuller,  swore 
that  Penn  was  in  league  with  Louis  XIV  to  invade  England; 
and  the  accusation  that  Penn  was  a  Jesuit  and  secret  emis- 
sary of  Rome  rendered  it  most  difficult  for  him  to  clear 
himself.  At  this  juncture,  Penn  disappeared  from  the  pub- 
lic eye,  sending  the  following  explanation  to  his  friends: 
"My  privacy  is  not  because  men  have  sworn  truly,  but 
falsely  against  me:  for  wicked  men  have  laid  in  wait  for 
me,  and  false  witnesses  have  laid  to  my  charge  things  that 
I  knew  not;  who  have  never  sought  myself,  but  the  good 
of  all,  through  great  exercises;  and  have  done  some  good, 
and  would  have  done  more,  and  hurt  to  no  man ;  but  always 
desired  that  truth  and  righteousness,  mercy  and  peace,  might 
take  place  amongst  us.*' 

So  extensively  had  the  report  spread  that  William  Penn 
was  a  Jesuit  that  when  visiting  Ireland  in  the  year  1698 
with  Thomas  Story  and  John  Everet,  they  were  charged 
with  being  Papists  and  their  horses  seized.  William  Penn 
denounced  this  as  an  outrage,  and  demanded  an  investiga- 
tion, when  he  found  that  a  law  existed  by  which  no  Cath- 
olic could  own  a  horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds,  five 
shillings,  which  is  suggestive  of  the  strenuous  methods  used 
in  the  seventeenth  century  to  rid  Ireland  of  Catholics.  Penn 
presented  the  case  to  the  Lord-chief-Justice,  and  his  party 
was  released  and  allowed  to  continue  their  preaching  tour. 
To  add  to  his  annoyances  and  perplexities,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Quakers  had  refused  to  provide  funds  for  the  estab- 


224 


JAMES  II.,  WILLIAM  AND  MARY 


lishment  of  military  defense,  proposing  to  depend  on  moral 
suasion;  and  with  several  charges,  among  them  treason, 
hanging  over  him,  Penn  for  two  or  three  years  was  elim- 
inated from  the  work  he  was  doing,  almost  completely 
undone  by  the  active  enemies  of  Quakerism,  who  thus 
made  him  a  scapegoat.  It  was  only  when  Lord  Preston 
escaped  and  his  partner.  Fuller,  was  found  to  be  a  perjurer 
and  sentenced  to  the  pillory,  that  the  king  began  to  suspect 
that  Penn  had  been  maligned  and  was  innocent.  When 
John  Locke,  author  of  the  famous  letter  on  toleration, 
Lords  Ranclagh,  Rochester  and  Sydney,  waited  on  the 
king  and  asked  for  his  pardon,  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
been  most  unjustly  treated;  it  was  awarded. 

Penn  was  not  satisfied  with  the  royal  clemency  alone. 
Being  innocent,  he  demanded  an  investigation  by  the  Privy 
Council,  which  had  repeatedly  arrested  him,  and  was  hon- 
orably acquitted. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  William  was  one  which  saved 
the  Quakers  from  much  persecution.  An  Act  had  been 
passed  giving  them  seven  years  of  affirmation,  instead  of  the 
oath.  This  was  about  expiring,  but  was  increased  to  eleven. 
Soon  after,  the  king  was  fatally  injured  and  died,  regretted 
and  lamented  by  the  English  Protestants  at  large. 


CHAPTER  X. 
QUEEN  ANNE  AND  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD. 
1702—1837. 

The  Quakers  of  England  were  profoundly  stirred  by  the 
death  of  a  beloved  monarch,  and  the  accession  of  Anne, 
who  quieted  the  political  enemies  of  the  Quakers  by 
promptly  promising  to  carry  out  the  policies  of  her  late 
brother.  This  was  welcomed  by  the  Quakers  who  dreaded 
the  extraordinary  political  upheavals  which  had  charac- 
terized the  history  of  England  in  the  past  thirty  years.  It 
had  been  a  prophecy  of  George  Fox  that  "God  in  his  own 
time  would  work  their  deliverance,  and  that  it  would  not 
be  in  the  power  of  their  enemies  to  root  them  out."  When 
the  mind  reverts  back  to  their  struggles  of  nearly  sixty  years, 
through  the  eras  of  Cromwell,  Charles  the  First  and  Second, 
and  James,  sixty  years  of  endless  battling  with  governors, 
kings,  soldiery,  priests.  Catholics,  Presbyterians,  Baptists, 
Cromwellians,  Cavaliers,  Papists,  Ranters  and  a  hundred 
and  one  enemies,  using  all  the  weapons  of  law  and  fact, 
killing  them,  confining  them  in  dens  that  reeked  of  the 
Inquisition,  struck  down,  robbed,  their  houses  wrecked, 
their  women  insulted,  killed, — considering  all  this,  and  that 
in  no  instance  during  these  six  decades  had  a  Quaker  ever 
retaliated  with  a  blow  by  hand  or  weapon,  ever  remon- 
strated, except  by  prayer  or  in  acceptable  language,  the  final 
triumph  stands  as  the  extraordinary  event  of  a  remarkable 
century. 

During  these  stirring  times,   scores  of  Friends  were 

15 


226  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


preaching.  New  men  and  women  were  coming  to  the 
front,  Richard  Claridge,  John  Audland,  John  Camm,  Sam* 
uel  Bownas,  John  Richardson,  Stephen  Crisp,  Thomas  Story, 
Thomas  Chalkley,  Charles  Marshall,  Susanne  Fisher, 
Francis  Ellington,  I.  Tiffen  and  many  more,  who  travelled 
over  England  arousing  the  interest  of  the  people,  and  solid- 
ifying the  bands  which  connected  the  meeting  houses,  which 
now  dotted  the  face  of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland  and 
Wales. 

The  Quakers  of  England  now  found  themselves  free, 
their  ministers,  men  and  women,  occupied  the  field  of  re- 
ligious and  literary  endeavor  without  serious  protest  from 
Papists  or  Episcopalians.  The  depths  of  the  unfathomed 
caves  of  merciless  attack  seemed  to  have  been  sounded,  and 
there  was  an  adjustment  of  imaginative  and  actual  values 
in  their  relation  to  life  and  property  over  the  Christian 
world.  No  more  did  armed  men  enter  meeting  houses 
and  drag  out  men,  with  curses  and  invective.  No  more 
were  guards  stationed  along  the  approaches  to  towns  and 
villages  to  pass  the  word,  that  the  Quakers  coming  to  town 
might  be  adequately  stoned  or  perhaps  killed.  Justice  and 
truth  seemed  to  prevail,  and  the  false  reports,  lies  and  de- 
famations regarding  the  lives  of  Quakers  were  relegated  to 
the  depths  of  contumelious  fiction.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  Quakers  they  were  without  influence  and  made  little 
attempt  to  conciliate  the  powers  that  be;  but  as  the  crud- 
ities of  the  early  times  were  tempered,  the  influential  men 
of  the  sect  as  Fox,  Penn,  Holder,  Barclay,  Edmundson, 
Gove,  Fell,  Ap  John  and  others  used  what  influence  they 
had  for  their  betterment  and  did  what  they  could  to  keep 
the  reigning  powers  posted  as  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Quakers 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


to  the  throne;  no  difficult  matter  for  a  sect  which  would 
not  swear,  which  held  ideas  not  always  in  accord  with  the 
splendors  that  surrounded  the  king. 

In  accordance  with  this  policy,  George  Whitehead  upon 
the  ascendance  to  the  throne  of  Queen  Anne,  drew  up  an 
address  of  welcome  from  the  Quakers,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  and  the  Duke  of 
Ormond,  friends  of  William  Penn: 

"To  Queen  Anne,  over  England,  etc. 
May  it  please  the  Queen^ 

We,  thy  peaceable  subjects,  cannot  but  be  sorrowfully 
affected  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  loss  sustained  by  the  death 
of  our  late  king  William  the  Third,  whom  God  made  the 
instrument  of  much  good  to  these  nations;  a  prince  who 
indeed  desired  to  be  the  common  father  of  his  people,  and 
as  such  did  by  his  great  example,  as  well  as  precept,  en- 
deavor to  unite  them  in  interest  and  affection,  and  pro- 
moted and  confirmed  a  legal  liberty  to  tender  consciences, 
by  all  which  his  reign  was  adorned,  to  the  renown  of  his 
memory. 

And  it  having  pleased  the  all-wise  God,  the  disposer  of 
kingdoms,  to  preserve  thee  to  succeed  to  the  government  of 
these  nations;  and  thereby  to  the  maintaining  and  consum- 
mating those  great  works  so  happily  begun;  we  humbly  beg 
leave  to  congratulate  thy  free  and  peaceable  accession  to 
the  throne  whence  we  observe  the  queen's  excellent  declara- 
tion, manifesting  her  care  for  the  good  of  all  her  people, 
and  therefore  doubt  not  but  we,  her  Protestant  dissenting 
subjects,  shall  partake  of  her  royal  favor  and  protection. 

We  sincerely  declare,  that  with  the  assistance  of  the 


228  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


grace  of  God,  we  will  always,  according  to  our  Christian 
duty,  demonstrate  our  good  affection,  truth,  and  fidelity  to 
the  queen  and  her  government;  and  heartily  pray  that  his 
wisdom  may  direct,  and  his  blessing  be  upon  the  queen  and 
her  great  council,  to  the  suppressing  of  vice  and  immorality, 
and  the  promoting  of  piety,  peace,  and  charity,  to  the  glory 
of  God,  and  the  benefit  of  these  nations. 

May  the  King  of  kings  make  thy  reign  long  and  glorious, 
to  which  temporal  blessing  we  shall  pray  for  thy  eternal 
happiness. 

Signed  on  behalf  and  by  appointment  of  the  aforesaid 
people,  at  a  meeting  in  London,  the  loth  of  the  Second 
month,  1702." 

The  Queen  was  extremely  friendly  to  the  Quakers  and 
above  all  stood  for  toleration,  which  the  Quakers  promptly 
recognized  at  the  Yearly  Meeting,  March  30,  1702  in 
London : 

"To  Queen  Anne,  over  England,  etc. 

The  humble  and  thankful  acknowledgement  of  the  people 
commonly  called  Quakers,  from  their  Yearly-Meeting  in 
London,  the  30th  day  of  the  Third  month,  called  May,  1702. 
May  it  please  the  Queen^ 

We,  thy  peaceable  and  dutiful  subjects,  met  from  most 
parts  of  thy  dominions  at  our  usual  Yearly-Meeting,  (for 
the  promotion  of  piety  and  charity)  being  deeply  affected 
with  thy  free  and  noble  resolution  in  thy  late  speech  at  the 
prorogation  of  the  Parliament,  to  preserve  and  maintain  the 
act  of  toleration  for  the  ease  and  quiet  of  all  thy  people,  could 
not  but  in  gratitude  esteem  ourselves  engaged  both  to  thank 
Almighty  God  for  that  favorable  influence,  and  to  renew 
and  render  our  humble  and  hearty  acknowledgements  to 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


229 


the  queen  for  the  same,  assuring  her,  on  behalf  of  all  our 
friends,  of  our  sincere  affection  and  Christian  obedience. 

And  we  beseech  God,  the  fountain  of  wisdom  and  good- 
ness, so  to  direct  all  thy  counsels  and  undertakings,  that 
righteousness  which  exalts  a  nation,  and  mercy  and  justice, 
that  establish  a  throne,  may  be  the  character  of  thy  reign, 
and  the  blessings  of  these  kingdoms  under  it. 

Signed  by  the  appointment  and  on  behalf  of  the  said 
meeting." 

This  memorial  was  presented  at  Court  by  William  Penn 
to  whom  the  Queen  was  very  gracious,  assuring  him  of  her 
friendship,  and  reiterating  her  pro-toleration  sentiments 
issued  on  ascending  the  throne.  This  year,  the  Friends  lost 
one  of  their  most  distinguished  members,  Margaret  Fell 
Fox,  the  widow  of  George  Fox,  whose  home,  Swarthmore, 
had  so  long  been  headquarters  for  the  Quakers;  she  died 
in  her  eighty-seventh  year.  During  this  period  unification 
of  England  and  Scotland  was  accomplished,  and  the  two 
were  called  Great  Britain.  This  and  the  failure  of  the 
threatened  invasion  of  Scotland  stirred  again  the  loyalty 
of  the  Quakers,  who  addressed  the  Queen  in  the  following: 

"To  Anne,  Queen  of  Great  Britain,  etc. 

The  grateful  and  humble  Address  of  the  People  com- 
monly called  Quakers,  from  their  Yearly  Meeting  in  Lon- 
don, this  28th  day  of  the  Third  month,  called  May,  1708. 

We,  having  good  cause  to  commemorate  the  manifold 
mercies  of  God  vouchsafed  to  this  united  kingdom  of  Great 
Britain,  believe  it  our  duty  to  make  our  humble  acknowl- 
edgements, first  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  next  to  the 
queen,  for  the  liberty  we  enjoy  under  her  kind  and  fav- 


230  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


orable  government,  with  hearty  desires  and  prayers  to 
Almighty  God  (who  hath  hitherto  disappointed  the  mis- 
chievous and  wicked  designs  of  her  enemies,  both  foreign 
and  domestic)  that  he  will  so  effectually  replenish  the 
queen's  heart  together  with  those  of  her  great  council,  with 
his  divine  wisdom,  that  righteousness,  justice,  and  modera- 
tion, which  are  the  ornaments  of  the  queen's  reign  and  which 
exalt  a  nation,  may  be  increased  and  promoted. 

And  we  take  this  opportunity  to  give  the  queen  the  re- 
newed assurance  of  our  hearty  affection  to  the  present  estab- 
lished government,  and  that  we  will  as  a  people  in  our  re- 
spective stations,  according  to  our  peaceable  principles,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  approve  ourselves  in  all  fidelity  the 
queen's  faithful  and  obedient  subjects,  and  as  such  conclude 
with  fervent  prayers  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  that,  after  a 
prosperous,  safe  and  long  reign  in  this  lift,  O  queen,  thou 
mayest  be  blessed  with  an  eternal  crown  of  glory." 

Fourteen  members  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  28th  Third 
month  1708  signed  this  address,  which  was  presented  to  her 
Majesty  at  a  private  audience  by  George  Whitehead  and 
Thomas  Lower,  ministers  of  the  Society.  When  intro- 
duced by  the  cavalier,  Chief  Secretary  of  State  Boyle, 
Whitehead  said,  "We  heartily  wish  the  queen  health  and 
happiness;  we  are  come  to  present  an  address  from  our  yearly 
meeting,  which  we  could  have  desired  might  have  been 
more  early  and  seasonably  timed,  but  could  not,  because  our 
said  meeting  was  but  the  last  week ;  and  therefore  now  hope 
the  queen  will  favorably  accept  our  address." 

Upon  receiving  the  thanks  of  her  majesty,  he  again  re- 
plied, "We  thankfully  acknowledge,  that  God  by  his  power 
and  special  providence,  hath  preserved  and  defended  the 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  231 


queen  against  the  evil  designs  of  her  enemies,  having  made 
the  queen  an  eminent  instrument  for  the  good  of  this  nation 
and  the  realm  of  Great  Britian,  in  maintaining  the  tolera- 
tion, the  liberty  we  enjoy  in  respect  to  our  consciences 
against  persecution.  Which  liberty  being  grounded  upon 
this  reason  in  the  late  king's  reign,  for  the  uniting  the 
Protestant  subjects  in  interest  and  affection,  the  union  of 
Great  Britian  now  settled  tends  to  the  strength  and  safety 
thereof;  for  in  union  is  the  strength  and  stability  of  a 
nation,  or  kingdom ;  and  without  union,  no  nation  or  people 
can  be  safe;  but  are  weak  and  unstable.  The  succession 
of  the  crown  being  settled  and  established  in  the  Protestant 
line,  must  needs  be  very  acceptable  to  all  true  Protestant 
subjects. 

And  now,  O  queen,  that  the  Tord  may  preserve  and  de- 
fend thee  for  the  future,  the  remainder  of  thy  days,  and 
support  thee,  under  all  thy  great  care  and  concern  for  the 
safety  and  good  of  this  nation  and  kingdom  of  Great 
Britian,  and  that  the  Lord  may  bless  and  preserve  thee  to 
the  end,  is  our  sincere  desire." 

It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  the  accumulated  venom,  dis- 
like and  prejudice  against  Quakers  disappeared  with  their 
political  disabilities.  The  essentials  of  Quakerism  were 
still  an  excitent  to  the  church  and  to  Papists,  and  doubtless 
some  extreme  Quakers  still  insisted  upon  entering  churches, 
which  undoubtedly  incensed  the  rightful  owners.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  the  followers  of  Fox  did  not  lack  enemies.  Lit- 
erary scavengers  who  published  pamphlets  against  them, 
WTOte  vituperative  books,  spread  scandals  by  word  of 
mouth,  and  more  ingenious  yet,  encouraged  pseudo  friends 
to  follow  them  under  their  own  roofs,  and  create  schisms 


232  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


and  disputes  on  questions  of  moral  ethics.  The  keen  and 
passionate  cynicism  of  Swift  was  used  against  them,  and 
the  brilliant  wits  of  the  day  kept  up  a  sustained  fusillade 
of  badly  disguised  invective;  all  of  which  brought  out  a 
peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Quakers,  which  was  that  they 
progressed  better  under  attack  than  in  times  of  peace. 
Persecution,  contumely,  martyrdom,  seemingly  agreed  with 
them  as  a  body.  Individuals  went  down  before  the  perse- 
cution, families  were  w^ped  out,  but  the  Society  as  a  relig- 
ious organization  throve  under  the  lash  of  merciless  and 
pitiless  attack,  and  the  iron  hand  of  intolerance. 

This  undeniable  fact  has  been  used  against  the  Quakers 
to  prove  that  they  were  merely  religious  fanatics,  who  court- 
ed martyrdom;  but  this  is  not  true.  All  great  efforts, 
mental,  physical,  national  or  individual,  religious  or  philan- 
thropic, find  their  greatest  activities  in  the  time  of  strenuous 
endeavor,  and  a  calm  almost  invariably  follows  a  storm. 
As  these  lines  are  written  I  read  in  'Die  Post,'  the  organ 
of  the  German  war  party,  "Germans  have  never  thriven 
while  enjoying  an  endless  peace.  Only  the  diversion  of 
a  great  war  can  arouse  the  best  powers  of  the  nation,  and 
subjugate  the  inferior  qualities." 

The  Journal  of  George  Fox,  which  is  criticised  for  its 
lack  of  general  and  political  information  in  a  most  exciting 
era,  is  filled  with  statements,  addresses  and  sermons  often 
replying  to  his  literary  enemies.  The  Quakers  were  not 
disturbed  by  attacks  ,or  the  extraordinary  jokes  at  their  ex- 
pense, and  occasionally  they  would  even  capture  a  priest  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Such  an  instance  was  that  of 
Samuel  Crisp,  who  said,  "O  the  love,  the  sweetness,  tender- 
ness and  affection  I  have  seen  amongst  this  people." 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


Among  the  notable  attempts  to  create  dissension  among 
the  Friends,  is  the  historic  case  of  George  Keith,  who  caused 
much  excitement  by  writing  and  preaching  against  the 
Friends,  but  losing  in  the  end.  Among  the  distinguished 
ministers  in  the  end  of  the  century  was  Peter  Gardner,  who 
visited  Scotland,  and  created  much  interest  at  Ury,  meeting 
Robert  Gerard,  Margaret  Jaffray,  David  Wallace,  John 
Chalmers,  John  Bowstead  and  many  others.  Samuel 
Bownas,  author  and  preacher,  was  doing  yoeman  service. 

In  1710,  the  queen  reiterated  her  determination  to  main- 
tain toleration  and  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  Quakers  of 
London  again  thanked  her  in  a  long  and  fervent  address, 
which  was  repeated  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  1713  at  Lon- 
don, after  the  declaration  of  peace  between  England  and 
France. 

There  were  at  this  time  at  least  sixty-five  thousand 
Quakers  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  again  the  histor- 
ian is  attracted  by  the  strange  anomaly  that  when  the  seas 
were  smoothest,  the  Society  did  not  increase ;  the  facts  being 
that  from  about  the  time  of  the  death  of  George  Fox,  or  the 
decade  that  included  it,  the  Society,  while  it  increased  in  in- 
fluence, really  decreased  in  numbers.  This  continued  until 
about  1800  when  the  sum  total  of  Quakers  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  could  not  have  been  over  twenty  thousand. 
From  then  on  they  slowly  increased.  Many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  explain  this  enigma.  Eminolt  ascribes  it  to 
the  natural  reaction,  and  the  death  of  Fox,  Barclay,  Penn, 
Howgill,  and  other  great  leaders.  But  I  should  consider 
that  the  cause  could  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  Quakers 
were  not  active  in  proselyting  compared  to  other  sects. 
The  fundamental  objective  of  Quakerism  was  not  to  form 


234  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


a  new  religion,  but  to  warn  and  rebuke  the  whole  world. 
The  sect  of  Quakers,  as  a  religious  denomination,  was  an 
afterthought  which  arose  from  the  conditions  which  ob- 
tained. To  this  must  be  added  the  strictness  of  the  rules  of 
life,  the  contrast  to  the  gayeties  of  the  day,  and  the  diffi- 
culty in  keeping  young  people  in  the  church  of  tomorrow,  in 
a  fold  in  which  the  innocent  pleasures  of  life  natural  to 
youth  were,  in  a  sense,  eliminated.  The  First  Day  with 
its  ultra  religious  books,  often  of  a  doleful  character,  was  a 
melancholy  experience  for  exhuberant  youth.  The  Cath- 
olic youth  was  brought  up  amid  the  splendor  of  the  church 
and  its  gorgeous  display.  The  youthful  Quaker  was  color, 
music  and  art  starved.  Thus  Friends  were  deprived,  in- 
sensibly, of  their  greatest  source  of  strength,  development 
and  increase. 

The  period  of  the  activity  of  Fox  and  Penn  saw  some  of 
the  greatest  wits  in  the  history  of  England,  whose  tempera- 
mental characteristics  were  such  as  to  make  the  Quaker 
fair  game.  Among  the  brilliant  men  of  the  time  was  John 
Milton,  who  was  the  secretary  of  Cromwell  and  who  often 
discussed  Quakerism  with  EUwood.  Edmund  Waller  was 
writing  verse  when  Fox  was  in  the  Tower,  and  Lord  Claren- 
don's clever  pen  was  not  always  engaged  in  state  papers; 
his  prolix  and  redundant  style  finding  ammunition  in  the 
mystic  Quakers.  The  author  of  Hudibras,  Samuel  Butler, 
had  as  a  pseudo  patron  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  Jeremy 
Taylor,  whom  Coleridge  says,  "burned  with  Christian 
love,"  being  an  intense  Papist  and  follower  of  Laud,  aimed 
his  cynical  darts  at  the  Quakers.  Here,  too,  was  Richard 
Baxter,  launching  his  phillipics  of  wit,  speculation,  religion, 
into  the  sea  of  imaginative  achievement  at  the  expense  of 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  235 


the  Quaker.  Denham,  Sir  Rodger  L' Estrange,  Abraham 
Cowley,  "O'errun  with  wit,  and  lavish  of  his  thoughts," 
Andrew  Merrit,  and  by  no  means  least,  John  Evelyn,  whose 
diary  is  a  mine  of  well  digested  truth  of  the  time  of  Charles 
the  Second,  and  who  was  fair  while  caustic  with  the  Qua- 
kers. Even  Pepys,  who  despised  Sir  William  Penn,  was 
pleased  to  say  that  Evelyn  was  "a  most  excellent  person." 
The  clever  pen  of  Bishop  Tillotson,  whom  Dryden  owned 
his  master,  Dryden  himself  the  laureate,  who  rivalled 
Juvenal  as  a  satirist,  a  brilliant  lyric  poet,  John  Locke, 
whom  Laudor  claims  as  the  most  elegant  of  prose  writers, 
the  learned  Earl  of  Rosscommon,  the  Earl  of  Rochester, 
Congreve,  Sir  Richard  Steele  and  many  more,  aimed  their 
caustic  epithetical  bombs  at  the  Quakers,  who  replied  in  the 
extraordinary  pamphlets,"^  published  in  the  shadow  of  St. 
Paul,  whose  style  astonished  and  mystified  the  wits  and 
artists  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  the  year  1714  a  bill  was  introduced  into  Parliment  en- 
titled "An  Act  to  Prevent  the  Growth  of  Schisms."  It  was 
a  revival  of  the  old  intolerance,  and  if  passed,  would  have 
prevented  the  Quakers  and  other  Dissenters  from  organiz- 
ing and  carrying  on  their  schools,  a  permission  already 
granted  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  Quakers  entered  a 
vigorous  protest  against  this  iniquity,  but  the  bill  passed. 
The  queen  died  in  1714,  and  George  the  First,  prince  elector 
of  Brunswick,  Lunenberg,  was  crowned  king,  being  the  son 
of  Sophia,  widow  and  electoral  princess  of  Brunswick  who 
had  been  selected  for  the  succession.  About  forty  repre- 
sentative Quakers  under  the  leadership  of  George  White- 

*Footnote. — See  appendix  for  tj^pical  pamphlet  by  Christopher 
Holder. 


236  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


head,  waited  on  the  king.  They  were  presented  by  Lord 
Townsend  and  their  leader  read  the  following  address : 

"To  George,  King  of  Great  Britian  &c. 

The  humble  address  of  the  people  commonly  called 
Quakers. 
Great  Prince, 

It  having  pleased  Almighty  God  to  deprive  these 
kingdoms  of  our  late  gracious  queen,  we  do  in  great  humil- 
ity approach  thy  royal  presence  with  hearts  truly  thankful 
to  divine  Providence  for  thy  safe  arrival,  with  the  prince 
thy  son,  and  for  thy  happy  and  uninterrupted  accession  to 
the  crown  of  these  realms;  which,  to  the  universal  joy  of 
thy  faithful  subjects,  hath  secured  to  thy  people  the  Prot- 
estant succession,  and  dissipated  the  just  apprehensions  we 
were  under,  of  losing  those  religious  and  civil  liberties, 
which  were  granted  to  us  by  law,  in  the  reign  of  King 
William  the  III.,  whose  memory  we  mention  with  great 
gratitude  and  affection.  We  are  also  in  duty  obliged 
thankfully  to  acknowledge  thy  early  and  gracious  declara- 
tion in  council,  wherein  thou  hast,  in  princely  and  Christian 
expressions,  manifested  thy  just  sense  of  the  state  of  thy 
people,  and  which  we  hope  will  make  all  degrees  of  thy 
subjects  easy. 

And  as  it  hath  been  our  known  principle  to  live  peaceable 
under  government,  so  we  hope  it  will  always  be  our  practice, 
through  God's  assistance,  to  approve  ourselves  with  hearty 
affection,  thy  faithful  and  dutiful  subjects. 

May  the  wonderful  Counsellor  and  great  Preserver  of 
men,  guide  the  king  by  his  divine  wisdom;  protect  him  by 
his  power;  give  him  health  and  length  of  days  here,  and 
eternal  felicity  hereafter;  and  so  bless  his  royal  offspring. 


G  E  O  R  G  E, 

KING  of  Great  Britain, 

The  Humble  ADDRESS  of  the  People  called 
Q.U  A'K  E  R  S,  from  their  Yearly- Meeting  in 
London,  the  26th  Day  of  the  Third  Month, 
called  M^Lj^  1716. 

May  tt  Pleafe  the  K.ING  ! 

WE,  Thy  Faitliful  and  Peaceable  Subjefts,  being  met  in  this 
Our  J»»ual  Ajjemhlj,  do  hold  Our  felves  obUged,  in  Point 
of  Principle  and  Gratitude,  rather  than  by  Format  and 
Frequent  Addrejfesy  humbly  and  openly  to  acknowledge  the 
manifold  Bleffings  and  kind  Providences  of  God,  which  have  attend- 
ed thefe  Kingdoms  ever  fince  thy  Flappy  Acceffion  to  the  Throne. 

And  as  Our  Religion  effeftually  enjoins  Us  Obedience  to  the  Su- 
pream  Authority,  fo  it  is  with  great  Satisfaction  that  we  pay  it  to  a 
Prince,  whofe  'Jttfitce,  Clemency  and  Moderation,  cannot  but  endear, 
and  firmly  unite  the  Hearts  and  Afifedions  of  all  His  True  Proteftant 
Subiefts. 

We  are  therefore  forrowfully  AffeSed  for  the  Unhappinelsof  thole 
of  Our  Countrymen,  who  have  fo  little  Gratitude  or  Goodneis,  as  to 
be  uneafie  under  fo  juft  and  mild  an  Adminiftration :  Nor  can  We 
reflet  on  the  late  Unjuft  and  Unnatural  Rebellion,  without  con- 
cluding the  Promoters  thereof,  and- Aftors  therein,  were  Men  infa- 
tuated, and  hurried  by  fuch  an  Evil  Spirit,  as  would  lay  wafte  and 
deftroy  both  the  Civil  and  Religious  Liberties  of  thele  Proteftant 
Nations. 

An  D  as  God,  the  Lord  of  Hofts,  has  moft  fignally  appeared  to  the 
Confounding  that  B/^f*  Conspiracy,  fo  We  pray  his  Good  Providence 
may  always  attend  the  King's  Councils  and  Undertakings,  to  the 
Eftablifhing  His  Throne  in  Righteoufnefs  and  Peace,  and  Making 
his  Houfe  a  fure  Houfe.  , 

Permit  Us  therefore,  Great  Prince,  to  lay  hold  of- this  Opportu- 
nity to  approach  Thy  Royal  Prefence,  with  Our  Hearty  Thanks  to  the 
King  and  His  Great  Council,  for  all  the  Privileges  and  Liberties  We 
enjoy.  To  behold  a  Prince  upon  the  Throne,  Solicitous  for  the  Eafe  and 
Happinefs  of  His  People  beyond  any  other  Views,    lightens  Our  Sa- 
tisfaSion  and  Joy,  that  We  want  Words  to  expreG  Our  full  Sede 
thereof.     And  therefore  We  can  do  no  lefs,  'han  afl^re  the  Kmg, 
That  as  it  is  Our  Duty  todemean  Our  Selves  towards  the  King^ 
fon  and  Government,  with  all  Faithful  Obedience,  jo  N^are  de^er 
mined,  by  Divine  Afliftance,  devoutly  and  heartily  JP/^^fLoiS 
and  Father  of  all  Our  Mercies,  To  youchfafe  unto  f  ^S,^^/^'^' 
Peaceable  and Profperous  Reign;  And  ^^aj  whe^  fjall  pl^l^  ne 
Almighty  to  remove  from  "sfo  precious  a  ^.^^^  ^^^ 
felf,  the/emay  not  want  ^^ra^ch  of  T^y^^^^ 
with  Wifdomand  v;.-rnr>rQ  fill  the  Throne,  till!  imeina  ^  

The  K  i  N  g's  G^^^'''''\^f'}^Z'to  my  Vctfcn 
I  rhank  rou  for  the  AJfurance  oj  Duty  W  ^t^X^^^^^^^^ 
1  G(rvernment,  contained  W  thts  Addrejs,  an^. 
nrj  Prot€£Iion» 

ADDRE^fi  OF  Qf  AKEItS  TO  KISG  GEORGE 


FRIENDS  MEETINd  HOUSE 
Frenchay,  England  (Upper)  r 
WHERE  CHRISTOPHER  HOLDER  WAS  BURIED 
"Swarthmore,"  England 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  237 


that  they  may  never  fail  to  adorn  the  throne  with  a  successor 
endowed  with  piety  and  virtue." 

This  was  received  by  the  King  who  assured  the  Quakers 
of  his  protection;  and  England,  so  far  as  the  Royal  family 
is  concerned,  became  Germanized,  and  has  so  continued 
until  today. 

During  1715  and  following  years  the  Society  of  Friends 
had  attained  such  proportions  and  its  principles  had  become 
so  well  known  that  it  began  to  command  the  respect  of  all 
people,  who  saw  that  despite  certain  "peculiarities"  of  the 
Quakers  their  morals  and  methods  of  life  were  beyond  criti- 
cism. 

The  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  Dr.  Gilbert  Burnet,  author  of 
the  "History  of  the  Reformation,"  died  about  this  time, 
and  while  not  an  active  friend  of  the  Quakers,  he  was  ex- 
tremely tolerant.  He  said  on  one  occasion,  "I  will  not 
deny  but  many  of  the  dissenters  were  put  to  great  hard- 
ships in  many  parts  of  England ;  I  cannot  deny  it,  and  I  am 
sure  I  will  never  justify  it.  And  I  will  boldly  say  this,  that 
if  the  Church  of  England,  after  she  has  got  out  of  this 
storm  will  return  to  hearken  to  the  peevishness  of  some  sour 
men,  she  will  be  abandoned  both  of  God  and  man,  and  will 
set  both  Heaven  and  earth  against  her." 

In  this  year  the  Act  of  Toleration  expired,  and  the 
Friends  brought  up  the  subject  in  Parliament,  and  it  became 
effectual. 

In  thankfulness  the  Quakers  addressed  the  king  as  fol- 
lows: 

"The  Lord  our  God  who,  for  the  sake  of  his  heritage 
hath,  often  hithertofore  rebuked  and  limited  the  raging 
waves  of  the  sea,  hath,  blessed  be  his  name,  mercifully  dis- 


238  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


persed  the  clouds  threatening  a  storm,  which  lately  seemed 
to  hang  over  us;  which,  together  with  the  favor  that  God 
hath  given  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  king  and  the  government, 
for  the  free  enjoyment  of  our  religious  and  civil  liberties, 
call  for  true  thankfulness  to  him.  And  humbly  to  pray  to 
Almighty  God  for  the  king  and  those  in  authority,  for  his 
and  their  safety  and  defense,  is  certainly  our  Christian  duty, 
as  well  as  to  walk  inoffensively  as  a  grateful  people." 

The  methods  of  the  Quakers  in  keeping  in  touch  with  all 
their  members  in  1717  is  interesting,  illustrating,  as  it  does, 
how  complete  and  extraordinary  a  religious  organization 
they  had  developed  for  the  production  of  good  men  and 
women.  The  Catholic  Church  aimed  at  the  same  point  in 
introducing  the  Confession  of  Sins  as  a  part  of  their  moral 
code.  But  the  Quaker  confessed  to  God  in  his  silent  meet- 
ings, and  designed  to  keep  the  members  of  the  Society  so 
pure  that  they  would  have  nothing  to  confess.  The  Quak- 
ers had  various  methods  of  reaching  their  members. 
Among  them  were  the  so-called  epistles,  issued  by  the  yearly 
meetings,  which  were  sent  out  and  read  at  the  various  busi- 
ness meetings.    The  following  is  such  a  paper : 

''ihe  Epistle  from  the  T early  Meeting  in  London^  held 
by  adjournment^  from  the  loth  day  of  the  Fourth  months 
to  the  14th  of  the  same  inclusive^  ^7^7- 

^0  the  Quarterly  and  Monthly  Meetings  of  Friends  in 
Great  Britian,  and  elsezvhere. 

Our  salutation  in  the  love  of  Christ  Jesus  our  blessed 
Lord,  is  freely  extended  unto  you,  whose  tender  care  is  over, 
and  mercy  to,  this  our  annual  assembly,  we  do  humbly  and 
thankfully  acknowledge  in  the  love,  amity,  tender  condescen- 
sion, and  peaceable  procedure  thereof,  with  respect  to  the 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  239 


divine  power  and  good  of  the  Lord  our  God,  and  the  service 
of  his  church  and  people;  sincerely  desiring  the  prosperity 
of  his  whole  heritage,  even  in  all  the  Churches  of  Christ 
among  us,  in  his  dear  love,  unity  and  peace,  to  his  eternal 
glory,  and  our  universal  comfort  and  perpetual  joy  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  dear  Son  of  God. 

We  are  truly  comforted,  in  that  we  understand  there  is 
such  a  general  concurrence  and  union  among  Friends,  with 
our  former  earnest  desires  and  counsel,  for  true  and  uni- 
versal love,  unity  and  peace  and  good  order  to  be  earnestly 
endeavored  and  maintained  among  us,  as  a  peculiar  people, 
chosen  of  the  Lord,  out  of  the  world,  to  bear  a  faithful 
testimony  to  His  Holy  Name  and  truth,  in  all  respects ;  and 
that  all  that  is  contrary  be  watched  against  and  avoided;  as 
strife,  discord,  contention,  and  disputes  tending  to  divisions, 
may  be  utterly  suppressed  and  laid  aside,  as  the  light  and 
righteous  judgment  of  truth  require. 

Oh  I  that  all  the  churches  and  congregations  of  the  faith- 
ful would  be  excited  by  the  Spirit  of  the  dear  Son  of  God, 
fervently  to  pray  for  the  prosperity  of  his  church  and  people 
throughout  the  world,  that  Zion  may  more  shine  in  the 
beauty  of  holiness,  to  the  glory  and  praise  of  the  King  of 
Glory. 

The  friends  and  brethren  come  up  from  several  quarterly 
meetings  in  this  nation,  have  given  a  good  account  to  this 
meeting  of  truth's  prosperity,  and  that  Friends  are  generally 
in  love  and  unity  one  with  another ;  and  by  several  epistles, 
from  friends  of  North  Carolina,  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  Barbadoes,  Holland,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and 
Wales,  which  have  been  read  in  this  meeting;  as  also  by 
verbal  accounts  given  by  several  friends  that  have  lately 


240  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


travelled  in  divers  parts  of  America,  and  elsewhere,  we  have 
received  comfortable  accounts  of  the  state  of  truth  and 
Friends  in  those  parts;  by  which  we  are  encouraged  to  hope 
truth  prevails  in  many  places,  and  a  concern  grows  upon 
Friends  for  the  prosperity  therof;  and  that  there  is  an  in- 
clination in  people  to  hear  the  truth  declared. 

By  the  accounts  brought  up  this  year,  we  find  that 
Friends'  offerings  in  England  and  Wales,  amount  to  five 
thousand,  two  hundred  and  ninety  pounds,  and  upwards, 
chiefly  for  tithes,  priests'  wages,  and  steeple-house  rates; 
and  that  notwithstanding,  there  have  been  four  Friends  dis- 
charged the  last  year,  there  yet  remain  twenty  Friends  pris- 
oners on  these  accounts. 

We  advise  that  a  tender  care  remain  upon  Friends  in  all 
places,  to  be  faithful  in  keeping  up  our  christian  testimony 
against  tithes,  as  being  fully  persuaded,  it  is  that  whereun- 
to  God  hath  called  his  people  in  this  our  day ;  we,  seeing  by 
daily  experience,  that  such  as  are  not  faithful  therein,  do 
thereby  add  to  the  sufferingss  of  honest  Friends,  and  hinder 
their  own  growth  and  prosperity  in  the  most  blessed  truth. 

As  touching  the  education  of  Friends'  children,  for  which 
this  meeting  hath  often  found  a  concern;  we  think  it  our 
duty  to  recommend  unto  you  the  necessity  that  there  is  of  a 
care  in  preserving  of  them  in  plainness  of  speech  and  habit 
suitable  to  our  holy  profession;  and  also  that  no  opportu- 
nity be  omitted,  nor  any  endeavor  wanting,  to  instruct  them 
in  the  principle  of  truth  which  we  profess;  that  thereby 
thev,  being  sensible  of  the  operation  thereof  in  themselves, 
may  find,  not  only  their  spirits  softened  and  tendered,  fit  to 
receive  the  impressions  of  the  divine  image,  but  may  also 
thence  find  themselves  under  a  necessity  to  appear  clear  in 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  241 

the  several  branches  of  our  Christian  testimony.  And  as 
this  will  be  most  beneficial  to  them,  being  the  fruits  of  con- 
viction, so  it  is  the  most  effectual  way  of  propagating  the 
suitable  to  our  holy  profession;  and  also  that  no  opportun- 
ity be  omitted,  nor  any  endeavor  wanting,  to  instruct  them 
same  throughout  the  churches  of  Christ.  And  there  being 
times  and  seasons  wherein  their  spirits  are,  more  than  at 
others,  disposed  to  have  those  things  impressed  upon  them; 
so  we  desire  that  all  parents,  and  others  concerned  in  the 
oversight  of  youth,  might  wait  in  the  fear  of  God,  to  know 
themselves  divinely  qualified  for  that  service,  that  in  his 
wisdom  they  may  make  use  of  every  such  opportunity, 
which  the  Lord  shall  put  into  their  hands.  And  we  do 
hereby  warn  and  advise  Friends  in  all  places  to  flee  from 
every  appearance  of  evil,  and  keep  out  of  pride,  and  from 
following  the  vain  fashions  and  customs  of  this  world,  as 
recommended  in  the  Epistle,  1715. 

And  as  we  always  found  it  our  concern  to  recommend 
love,  concord,  and  unity  in  the  churches  of  Christ  every- 
where, so,  as  a  means  to  effect  the  same,  we  earnestly  desire 
that  Friends,  but  more  especially  such  as  are  concerned  in 
meetings  of  business,  do  labor  to  know  their  own  spirits  sub- 
jected by  the  Spirit  of  Truth;  that  thereby  being  baptized 
into  one  body,  they  may  be  truly  one  in  the  foundation  of 
their  love  and  unity,  and  that  therein  they  may  all  labor  to 
find  a  nearness  to  each  other  in  spirit;  this  being  the  true 
way  to  a  thorough  reconciliation;  wherever  there  is,  or  may 
have  been  any  difference  of  apprehension;  thereby  Friends 
will  be  preserved  in  that  sweetness  of  spirit,  that  is,  and 
will  be  the  bond  of  true  peace,  throughout  all  the  Churches 
of  Christ. 
16 


242  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


And,  dear  Friends,  the  Friends  of  this  meeting,  to  whom 
the  inspection  of  the  accounts  was  referred,  made  report, 
that  having  perused  the  same,  they  found  the  stock  to  be 
near  expended;  whereupon  this  meeting  thinks  it  necessary 
to  recommend  unto  you,  that  a  general  and  free  contribu- 
tion be  made  in  every  county,  and  that  what  shall  be  there- 
upon collected,  be  sent  up  to  the  respective  correspondents. 

Finally,  dear  Friends  and  brethren,  be  careful  to  walk 
unblamable  in  love  and  peace  among  yourselves,  and  to- 
wards all  men  in  Christian  charity,  and  be  humbly  thankful 
to  the  Lord  our  most  gracious  God,  for  the  favor  he  hath 
given  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  king  and  civil  government,  in  the 
peacable  enjoyment  of  our  religious  and  Christian  liberties 
among  them;  and  the  God  of  peace,  we  trust  ,will  be  with 
you  to  the  end. 

The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  your  spirits. 
Amen. 

Signed  in,  and  on  the  behalf,  and  by  order  of,  this 
meeting. 

By  Benjamin  Bealing." 

During  the  reign  of  the  Georges,  there  was  little  to  at- 
tract attention  to  the  Quakers,  except  that  they  became 
highly  honored  and  respected  members  of  society.  In  the 
reign  of  George  II.  membership  with  Friends  was  defined, 
and  the  Quakers  became  more  and  more  pronounced 
as  a  sect.  All  children  of  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  were  born  members  and  so  remained.  The  empha- 
sis placed  upon  worldly  matters  and  attire  by  George  Fox 
resulted  gradually  in  the  assuming  of  what  was  practically 
a  uniform,  as  pronounced  as  that  of  his  Lordship,  the 
Bishop  of  London  to-day.  This  was  an  amusing  contretemps. 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  243 


as  it  was  diameterically  opposed  to  what  the  Quakers  origin- 
ally desired.  They  first  cut  from  their  coats  the  but- 
tons behindjbecause  they  appertained  to  swords,  the  turned 
over  collar  or  cuft"  was  a  vanity  and  unnecessary.  This  left 
the  coat  with  an  upright  collar,  no  colors  were  allowed, 
black,  white  or  drab  predominated.  The  dress  of  women 
was  equally  plain,  and  the  delicate  cap,  the  scoop  bonnet 
became  what  was  practically  a  uniform  beautiful  in  its  sim- 
plicity. That  simplicity  was  enforced  all  the  old  records 
show.  Barclay  says:  "In  1703,  the  young  women  came 
to  York  Quarterly  Meeting  in  long  cloaks  and  bonnets,  and 
they  were  therefore  not  only  ordered  to  take  the  advice  of 
the  elders  of  the  particular  church  (i.  e.  Meeting)  to  which 
they  belonged,  before  they  came  to  'these  great  Meetings 
here  in  York,'  but  in  the  minutes  of  one  monthly  meeting 
it  was  ordered  that  those  young  women  who  intended  to  go 
to  York  were  to  appear  before  their  own  meeting  'in  those 
clothes  that  they  intended  to  have  on  at  York  I  '  " 

Committees  were  appointed  to  visit  homes  to  see  that  the 
occupants  liveed  up  to  the  tenets  of  the  meeting.* 

The  Society  of  Friends  at  this  period  in  England  and  the 
colonies  had  produced  a  new  type  of  men  and  women. 
Anyone  who  knew  Friends  could  easily  recognize  them,  as 
dignity,  sweetness  and  purity  of  character  was  indelibly 

*Footnote. — The  author  was  a  born  member  of  the  Lynn,  Massa- 
chusetts, meeting,  transferred  to  The  New  York  meeting  in  1872.  He 
removed  to  California  in  1885,  but  has  never  been  transferred  to  a 
local  meeting  although  twenty-seven  years  have  passed.  The  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  who  formerly  attended  and  are  still  members  of 
the  New  York  meeting,  receive  yearly  an  affectionate  greeting  from 
the  New  York  meeting,  showing  that  they  are  not  forgotten.  This  is 
referred  to,  to  show  how  careful  the  Friends  are  to  follow  and  keep 
in  touch  with  their  people. 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


stamped  upon  their  faces.  They  lived  the  lives  they  pro- 
fessed, they  listened  to  no  evil,  they  saw  no  evil,  they  spoke 
no  evil.  In  all  the  observations  relating  to  moral  ethics 
there  is  nothing  more  remarkable  than  this  evolution  of  a 
Quaker  character  and  the  production  of  men  and  womer 
which  bear  the  closest  investigation,  who,  represent  an 
ideal  and  eminently  desirable  citizenship.  As  Elizabeth 
Braithwaite  Emmott  says:  "In  the  lives  of  these  Friends 
a  type  of  Quakerism  was  presented  to  the  world  somewhat 
different  from  that  of  the  first  period,  but  nevertheless  of  a 
rare  beauty  and  strength,,  combining  perfect  dignity  of 
manner  with  wonderful  simplicity  and  sweetness.  Its 
power  lay  in  absolute  integrity  of  character,  due  to  constant 
obedience  to  the  inward  Guide." 

In  1779,  Dr.  Fothergill  opened  the  Ackworth  School  for 
the  children  of  the  Friends,  the  first  of  a  large  number 
of  such  schools  established  in  Great  Britain  and  the  Colon- 
ies, all  of  a  high  order  and  patronized  by  "Dissenters"  as 
well  as  Friends,  when  the  rules  did  not  interefere.  George 
the  III.,  became  interested  in  Quaker  Schools  and  in  their 
appeals  for  national  education. 

One  result  of  the  work  of  a  Quaker,  Joseph  Lawrence, 
was  the  founding  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society. 
The  Friends  now  took  the  greatest  interest  in  charities  and 
philanthropic  work  of  all  kinds ;  there  was  not  a  great  move- 
ment for  betterment  in  the  Georgian  period  that  was  not 
aided  and  abetted  by  the  Quakers.  As  the  initial  protest- 
ors against  slavery,  they  stood  with  Wilburforce  in  1807  in 
putting  down  the  slave  trade.  Later  Joseph  Gurney,  Jos- 
eph Sturge,  and  many  English  Friends,  aided  by  their 
American  colleagues,  joined  Sir  T.  F.  Buxton  and  Thomas 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  245 


Clarkson  in  fighting  this  system.  Among  the  strong  char- 
acters in  the  eighteenth  century  was  John  Woolman,  who 
visited  America  in  1746,  and  became  an  earnest  worker 
against  slavery.  His  Journal  is  one  of  the  most  valued  of 
Quaker  character  and  the  production  of  men  and  women 
and  died  in  1772,  just  previous  to  the  War  of  American  In- 
dependence. He  will  always  be  identified  with  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  as  carried  on  by  Quakers.  Whittier's 
poem,  "The  Quaker  of  the  Olden  Time,"  might  well  have 
had  for  its  inspiration  John  Woolman,  who,  while  he  car- 
ried to  extreme  some  of  the  more  absurd  inconsistencies  of 
the  Quakers,  and  was  badly  handicapped  by  them,  left  deep 
impression  upon  the  history  of  his  time  for  moral  uplift. 

A  totally  different  type,  more  intellectual  and  represent- 
ing in  every  way  the  refined  and  cultivated  aristocratic  type 
produced  by  Quakerism,  was  Elizabeth  Fry,  who  gave  the 
strong  impetus  to  prison  reform  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Her  father  was  a  Friend,  John  Gurney,  of  Norwich,  a 
banker  and  a  "Quaker  Gentleman."  Her  mother  was  a  grand- 
daughter of  John  Barclay,  the  author  of  "The  Apology." 
The  Gurneys  were  very  cultivated  people,  who  wisely  elim- 
inated the  inconsistencies  and  non-essentials  of  Quakerism, 
and  were,  in  a  measure,  responsible  for  shaping  the  general 
policy  of  Friends  as  found  in  England  and  New  England 
to-day.  A  more  beautiful  woman  than  Elizabeth  Fry  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find,  and  garbed  in  the  costume  of  the 
Friends,  she  was  a  radiant  picture  of  dignity,  culture  and 
purity.  Her  reforms  among  prisons  and  prisoners  became 
a  life  work. 

Stephen  Grellett,  a  distinguished  figure  in  the  Society, 
visited  London  prisons  in  1813,  and  it  was  through  his 


246  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


means  that  Elizabeth  Fry  was  interested  in  the  work.  She 
visited  the  jails  and  organized  "An  Association  for  the  Im- 
provement of  the  Female  Prisoners  in  Newgate."  Stephen 
Grellett  thus  describes  the  prison  on  his  first  visit:  "Wlien 
I  first  entered,  the  foulness  of  the  air  was  almost  insupport- 
able, and  everything  that  is  base  and  depraved  was  so 
strongly  depicted  on  the  faces  of  the  women  who  stood 
crowded  before  me,  that  for  a  while  my  soul  was  greatly 
dismayed;  surely  then  did  I  witness  that  the  Lord  is  a  refuge 
and  strength,  his  Truth  is  a  shield  and  buckler.  The  more 
I  beheld  the  awful  consequences  of  sin,  the  more  also  I  felt 
the  love  of  Christ,  who  has  come  to  save,  and  who  had  died 
for  sinners.  As  I  began  to  speak  under  the  feeling  sense  of 
this  redeeming  love  of  Christ,  their  countenances  began  to 
alter ;  soon  they  hung  down  their  heads ;  and  tears  in  abund- 
ance were  seen  to  flow. 

I  inquired  of  them  if  there  were  any  other  female  prison- 
ers in  the  place,  and  was  told  that  several  sick  ones  were  up- 
stairs. On  going  up,  I  was  astonished  beyond  description 
at  the  mass  of  woe  and  misery  I  beheld.  I  found  many 
very  sick,  lying  on  the  bare  floor  or  on  some  old  straw,  hav- 
ing very  scanty  covering  over  them,  though  it  was  quite 
cold;  and  there  were  several  children  born  in  the  prison 
among  them,  almost  naked."  The  change  which  followed 
the  efforts  of  Elizabeth  Fry  is  shown  by  the  following  de- 
scription given  by  a  visitor: 

"The  courtyard  into  which  I  was  admitted  instead  of  be- 
ing peopled  with  beings  scarcely  human,  presented  a  scene 
where  stillness  and  propriety  reigned.  I  was  conducted  by 
a  decently  dressed  person,  the  newly  appointed  yards- 
woman,  to  the  door  of  a  ward,  where,  at  the  head  of  a  long 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  247 


table,  sat  a  lady  belonging  to  the  Society  of  Friends.  She 
was  reading  aloud  to  about  sixteen  women  prisoners,  who 
were  engaged  in  needlework  around  it.  Each  wore  a  clean- 
looking  blue  apron  and  bib,  with  a  ticket  having  a  number 
on  it  suspended  from  her  neck  by  a  red  tape.  They  all  rose 
on  my  entrance,  curtesied  respectfully,  and  then  at  a  given 
signal  resumed  their  seats  and  employment."  Elizabeth 
Fry  stands  as  the  embodiment  of  the  best  type  of  the  Quaker, 
a  replica  of  hundreds  of  women  in  England  and  America 
who  lent  dignity  and  charm  to  the  Quaker  Society. 

In  these  passing  years  came  the  Independence  of  the 
Colonies,  the  French  Revolution,  the  establishment  of  the 
Womens'  Friends  Yearly  Meeting,  the  war  with  France, 
and  the  wars  against  France  and  Napoleon,  1803-15,  the 
introduction  of  the  great  reform  bill,  in  nearly  all  of  which 
Quakers  had  a  share  or  were  influenced,  and  in  1833,  the 
year  before  the  Emancipation  Act  for  slaves  in  the  British 
colonies,  the  Quakers  were  admitted  to  Parliament,  marking 
1833  as  a  red  letter  year  in  Quaker  History.  In  1836  The 
Friends  Education  Society  was  founded,  and  the  following 
year  came  the  death  of  George  III.,  and  the  accession  of 
Victoria. 

As  may  be  imagined,  the  literary  wits  of  a  later  time  did 
not  neglect  the  Quakers.  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague, 
who  flourished  during  the  time  of  Penn,  often  pierced  them 
with  her  wit,  and  was  as  often  reproached.  In  Butler's 
Hudibras,  we  read 

"Quakers  that  like  to  lanterns  bear 
Their  lights  within  'em,  will  not  swear." 

And  all  the  eccentricities  of  the  Friends  were  seized  upon 
and  made  the  most  of.    They  did  not  lack  defenders,  as 


248  THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


Charles  Lamb  wrote,  "Get  the  writings  of  John  Woolman 
by  heart  and  love  the  early  Quakers."  The  Earl  of  Errol 
doubted  their  sincerity  and  wrote,  "The  Quaker  loyalty  is 
a  qualified  loyalty,  it  smells  of  rebellion."  Lord  Chester- 
field, of  whom  Horace  Walpole  said,  "His  writings  were 
everybody's,  that  is,  whatever  came  out  good  was  given  to 
him,  and  he  was  too  humble  to  refuse  the  gift,"  was  ever 
ready  to  display  his  sarcasm  at  the  expense  of  the  Quakers, 
who  resented  every  aspect  of  his  ill-spent  life.  Henry 
Fielding,  "the  prose  Homer  of  human  nature,"  gruff  Sam- 
uel Johnson,  Lord  Lyttleton,  David  Hume,  Sterne,  Garrick, 
Horace  Walpole,  Smollett,  all  displayed  their  witticism  at 
the  expense  of  the  Quakers.  John  Wilkes,  famous  for  his 
jests  not  only  on  the  Quakers,  but  the  Testament,  Gold- 
smith, whom  Horace  Walpole  called  "an  Inspired  Idiot," 
Edmund  Burke,  Sheridan,  Chatterton  and  many  more, 
scorned,  loved,  respected  or  hated  the  Quaker,  who  was  en- 
cased in  an  armor  of  unconsciousness,  from  which  their 
shafts  of  wit  or  venom  glanced  or  fell.  Of  all  the  literary 
men  of  the  early  Quaker  period,  John  Milton  alone  was  truly 
in  sympathy  with  them,  due  to  his  friendship  with  Ell- 
wood. 

In  1799  the  Friends  faced  schism  in  their  Society  in  Ire- 
land. A  number  of  Friends  decided  that  they  would  sub- 
mit the  Bible  and  all  things  to  the  weight  of  reason.  They 
were  practically  Unitarians,  and  rejected  the  idea  that 
Christ  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  considered  that  the  story 
of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  others,  were  allegorical.  An 
American  Friend,  Hannah  Barnard,  now  visited  Ireland, 
and  practically  preached  this  doctrine.  The  Yearly  Meet- 
ing of  Dublin  took  up  the  matter,  and  instructed  the  various 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


monthly  meetings  to  visit  those  who  entertained  these  views, 
and  "labor  with  Christian  love  and  tenderness  for  their 
restoration."  The  YearlyMeeting  also  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  visit  the  Quarterly  and  Monthly  meetings  to  as- 
sist them  with  advice.  The  best  men  in  the  ministry  were 
sent  into  Ireland  to  combat  this  heresy,  and  when  the  news 
reached  America  David  Sands  of  New  York  and  Richard 
Jordon  of  South  Carolina  visited  the  island  and  endeavored 
to  stem  the  disaffection  or  "delusion,"  as  they  considered  it 
So  great  was  the  departure  to  Unitarianism  that  in  Ulster 
many  who  had  been  ministers  and  elders  were  disowned. 

Here  again  we  see  the  singular  superstition  among  Friends 
and  practically  the  only  one.  Some  of  them  firmly  believed 
that  such  action  was  sure  to  be  followed  by  Divine  retribu- 
tion. Thus  William  Hodgson  says,  "The  hand  of  Divine 
Providence  seemed  to  be  turned  in  an  awful  manner  against 
these  deniers  of  the  Divinity  of  the  Lord  Jesus;  so  that  the 
predictions  of  Richard  Jordon  and  others  were  remarkably 
verified.  Some  of  them  who  had  lived  in  affluence,  ex- 
perienced a  sad  reverse  in  their  condition;  many  not  only 
lost  their  religious  reputation,  but  even  suffered  in  their 
moral  character,  and  became  an  astonishment  to  their  former 
acquaintances.  Others,  however,  awakened  by  timely 
warning,  abandoned  their  errors,  and  through  the  mercy  of 
a  gracious  Redeemer,  came  to  experience  repentance  and 
forgiveness ;  these  embraced  the  Christian  religion  in  renewed 
faith  and  sincerity,  and  were  restored  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  church." 

Long  after  peace  had  been  declared  between  the  Quakers 
and  their  many  enemies  in  England  they  had  many  sad 
experiences  in  Ireland.    This  was  in  the  latter  part  of  the 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD 


eighteenth  century  (1798)  during  the  reign  of  George  IV. 
At  this  time,  the  Friends  were  well  established  in  Ireland, 
particularly  in  the  east,  and  as  they  would  not  fight  with 
the  government,  nor  would  they  take  sides  with  the  Papists 
and  other  insurgents,  they  became  involved  in  all  the  hor- 
rors of  the  civil  wars  that  devastated  the  country.  The 
Friends  antagonized  the  Irish  by  destroying  all  their  fire- 
arms as  a  protest,  or  "sign"  that  it  was  wrong  to  go  to  war 
or  to  take  human  life.  It  soon  became  Papist  against  Prot- 
estant, and  the  Friends,  as  in  the  Civil  War  of  America, 
cared  for  the  wounded  and  turned  their  homes  into  asylums 
for  the  destitute  and  suffering,  though  many  lost  their 
homes.  While  there  was  much  suffering  from  ungovern- 
able mobs,  the  fact  remains  that  all  parties  respected  the 
Quakers,  and  when  the  Royal  Army  approached.  Papists  and 
others  flocked  to  the  homes  of  the  Quakers,  and  begged  for 
"Quaker  coats"  that  they  might  be  taken  for  the  men  who 
would  not  fight  for  conscience  sake,  and  so  be  spared. 

Even  priests  sought  this  masquerading.  A  Protestant 
minister  near  Enniscorthy  tried  to  obtain  a  coat,  but  could 
not,  and  was  later  found  murdered  near  the  river,  where  he 
had  tried  to  conceal  himself  from  the  Papist  mob.  Many 
instances  in  this  civil  war  could  be  given  to  illustrate  how 
well  the  Quakers  were  understood  and  respected.  In  one 
house  a  family  of  Quakers  sat  in  prayer  during  a  desperate 
battle  in  their  street.  When  the  Royal  troops  charged,  the 
Quakers  took  an  English  Papist  into  their  house,  bandaged 
his  wounds,  and  requested  him  to  leave,  which  he  did, 
knowing  that  by  remaining  he  would  bring  death  upon  the 
innocent  family.  In  a  few  moments  a  Royalist  trooper 
came  to  the  door  and  demanded  if  they  had  any  Papists 


OLD  FR/EXDS  MEETIXG  HOU^E^ 
Exeter  (ll'2.'f)  Upper 
MilrerfoH  (11  HO) 


OLD  EXdL/S/l  Mi:iVri\  (!  JH)l  S/:s 
(liil I ('nha)ii    (  Upper) 
W'orccsler 


THE  GEORGIAN  PERIOD  251 


within.  The  woman  of  the  house  replied  no.  At  this  some 
of  the  men  wished  to  search  the  place,  but  the  officer  stopped 
them,  "You  are  but  wasting  time,  there  is  no  one  here. 
These  people  are  Quakers,  and  they  would  not  lie  or  deceive 
to  save  their  lives."  In  all  this  war,  frightful  in  its  excesses, 
it  is  said  that  but  one  Quaker  was  killed,  although  the 
towns  and  villages  were  wrecked  and  the  streets  filled  with 
dead. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  AND  LATER  TIMES. 
1837-1912. 

The  Quaker  invasion  of  England  while  it  is  yet  too  soon 
to  estimate  its  just  value  in  the  evolution  of  the  nation,  ex- 
erted a  marked  effect  on  the  morals  of  the  people.  It  chast- 
ened the  culture  of  this  great  nation;  it  mellowed  the  nat- 
ional moral  sense,  and  from  being  a  despised  and  hated  peo- 
ple in  the  time  of  James  and  Charles  the  Quaker  became  a 
type  of  all  that  was  honored  and  respected.  The  London 
University  was  founded  in  1836,  the  year  the  Friends  estab- 
lished the  Educational  Society.  Then  came  the  Repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws,  in  which  the  Friends  had  a  large  share,  and  in 
1847  ^hey  established  the  Association  of  the  First  Day 
School. 

In  1866  non-conformists  were  admitted  to  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  and  the  Friends  established  their  Foreign  Mis- 
sion Societies,  and  in  1870  they  were  active  in  forming  the 
National  System  of  Elementary  Education.  If  the  great 
movements  for  education,  philanthropy,  prison  reform  and 
charities  at  large  are  examined  critically,  it  will  be  found 
that  many  were  instigated  or  suggested  by  Friends,  who 
aided  in  carrying  on  the  work,  and  who  resented  public- 
ity, as  did  Elizabeth  Fry  when  she  revolutionized  prison 
methods  in  England  and  personally  went  to  prison  ships 
with  women  convicts  and  bade  them  farewell  with  hope  in 
their  hearts. 

While  the  Society  became  more  or  less  dormant  after  the 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  253 


death  of  Fox,  Penn,  and  other  great  leaders,  a  reaction  from 
the  years  of  terror,  there  came  in  the  nineteenth  century  in 
England  a  distinct  revival  of  interest,  as  there  is  today  in 
the  twentieth  century,  when  the  Friends  are  increasing  in 
England. 

The  Emancipation  Act  was  passed  in  1833,  and  Joseph 
Sturge,  Thomas  Harvey,  and  others  made  the  trip  to  the 
West  Indies.  As  a  result  of  their  investigations  a  resolu- 
tion was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Commons,  "that  negro 
apprenticeship  in  the  British  Colonies  should  cease."  This 
was  carried  by  three  votes.  Sir  Thomas  F.  Buxton,  writes, 
"The  intelligence  was  received  with  such  a  shout  by  the 
Quakers  (myself  among  the  number)  that  we  were  all 
turned  out  for  rioting.    I  am  right  glad." 

The  Friends  now  took  up  a  campaign  for  betterment  all 
along  the  line.  They  established  temperance  societies  in 
the  face  of  intense  opposition.  The  distress  and  poverty  in 
England  appealed  to  them;  they  made  a  careful  study  of 
the  situation,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cure  was 
Free  Trade.  The  Friends  previous  to  the  time  of  Victoria, 
or  in  1833,  had  been  kept  out  of  Parliment  by  their  refusal 
to  take  the  oath,  but  now  Joseph  Pease,  a  Friend,  was  re- 
turned from  South  Durham  on  making  an  affirmation  instead 
of  the  oath.  This  was  a  notable  victory  and  was  followed  by 
the  entrance  of  many  Friends  into  active  political  life,  fore- 
most being  John  Bright,  a  Quaker,  who  lead  the  great  fight 
in  Parliment  in  1843,  with  Richard  Cobden,  for  cheap 
bread  for  the  people,  securing  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws 
— one  of  the  great  Quaker  victories  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  Friends  made  themselves  especially  felt  in  in- 
vestigations into  the  conditions  of  the  insane,  and  opened 


254  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


the  York  Retreat,  which  was  the  first  rational  attempt  in 
England  toward  radical  reform  in  this  direction.  Some 
idea  of  the  activities  of  the  modern  Friend  is  shown  by  the 
committees  which  report  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  London: 

Home  Missions  and  Extension  Committee.  Central 
Education  Committee.  Peace  Committee.  Anti-Slavery 
Committee.  Anti-opium  Committee.  Friends'  Tract  As- 
sociation. Friends'  First-day  School  Association,  (includ- 
ing Adult  Schools.)  ! riends'  Foreign  Mission  Association. 
Friends'  Temperance  Union. 

Henry  Stanley  Newman  says  in  "The  Friend,"  27th,  12 
mo.,  1907,  "The  more  carefully  we  study  the  last  half- 
century  of  Quakerism,  the  greater  appears  the  advance  in 
Christian  activity.  Anyone  who  carefully  reads  the  ac- 
count of  London  Yearly  Meeting  in  the  issues  of  'The 
Friend'  fifty  years  ago,  will,  we  think,  conclude  that  the  way 
was  then  being  faithfully  prepared  for  the  enlargement  and 
progress  that  have  happily  taken  place.  In  1857,  Joseph 
Thorp,  Robert  Forster,  and  Robert  Charleton  sat  as  Clerks 
at  our  Yearly  Meeting  in  London,  James  Backhouse,  Benja- 
min Seebohm,  John  Pease,  and  Joseph  Pease,  Peter  Bed- 
ford, Grover  Kemp,  Daniel  P.  Hack,  Josiah  Forster,  Joseph 
Sturge,  and  Samuel  Bowly  were  active  in  religious 
services  during  the  various  sessions.  In  1857,  Bristol  and 
York  made  a  definite  stand  for  Adult  Schools  which  was 
rapidly  followed  in  the  next  three  or  four  years  in  many 
other  Friendly  centres,  William  White  moving  about 
among  Friends  with  his  racy  narratives  of  experiences  in 
Mens'  Classes,  and  their  encouraging  results." 

Among  the  notable  works  of  the  modern  Quaker  is  the 
Adult  School  Movement.    Joseph  Sturge  really  started 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  255 


the  movement  in  Burmingham,  the  following  handbill  be- 
ing issued: 

"A  School  is  intended  to  be  held  on  First-day  (Sunday) 
evenings,  from  six  to  eight  o'clock,  at  the  British  School 
Rooms  in  Severn  Street,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  afford- 
ing instruction  in  reading  the  scriptures,  and  in  writing,  to 
youths  and  young  men  from  fourteen  years  of  age  and  up- 
wards, who  are  invited  to  attend.  The  school  to  commence 
on  the  12th  of  tenth  month,  1845." 

This  movement  grew  until  it  assumed  an  international 
importance ;  other  nations,  taking  it  up,  and  to-day  in  Eng- 
land it  has  over  one  thousand  schools  and  one  hundred 
thousand  members  among  both  sexes. 

The  attitude  of  the  Friends  to  poverty  is  well  illustrated 
by  a  paper  read  by  B.  S.  Rowntree  at  the  1907  Yearly 
Meeting  in  London;  "Why  should  we  not  have  some  such 
query  as  this:  Ts  the  condition  of  the  poor  around  you  a 
matter  of  Christian  solicitude  on  your  part"?  Do  you  bear 
in  mind  that  it  must  be  contrary  to  the  will  of  our  Father 
in  Heaven  that  any  of  His  children  should  be  placed  in  cir- 
cumstances, that  must  inevitably  arrest  the  development  of 
their  higher  nature,  and  are  you  taking  your  right  share  in 
social  serviced'  Such  a  query,'  he  tells  us,  'would  be  but 
the  modern  echo  of  the  fundamental  portion  of  the  message 
of  our  early  Friends.  George  Fox,  placed  in  Derby  House 
of  Correction,  devoted  a  portion  of  the  time  spent  there  to 
the  study  of  the  social  condition  of  the  town,  and  the  state 
of  the  prisons  and  prisoners.  In  1658,  he  exhorted  the  Pro- 
tector and  the  Parliment  to  do  away  with  beggars,  saying 
that  'want  brought  people  to  steal,'  and  that  those  who  were 
rich  should  provide  some  employment  for  the  poor  or  keep 


256  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


them  out  of  temptation.  He  went  on  to  suggest  a  Govern- 
ment Register  of  Employers  requiring  labour,  and  a  work- 
man out  of  employ  in  every  market  town.  In  the  same 
year  Fox  appealed  for  the  prohibition  of  more  public  houses 
than  were  necessary  for  genuine  travellers.  He  persistently 
declaimed  in  fairs  and  at  market  crosses  against  cheating 
and  cozzening  in  trade," 

The  care  of  their  own  poor  among  Quakers  is  a  remark- 
able instance  of  their  method.  One  would  live  a  long  time 
among  Quakers  before  he  found  any  poor  or  indigent.  I 
have  never  seen  or  heard  of  a  Quaker  pauper,  though  a  birth- 
right member  and  living  in  a  large  Quaker  com- 
munity and  in  a  city  where  the  Quakers  were  rep- 
resented by  a  large  meeting.  The  reason  was  that 
the  Quakers  cared  for  their  poor.  Until  I  was  well 
grown  I  supposed  that  a  certain  beautiful  and  cul- 
tivated old  lady,  who  lived  in  a  relative's  family, 
was  a  kinswoman.  She  was  a  Quaker  who  had  lost  all  and 
was  thus  cared  for,  boarded  and  clothed,  and  treated  as  a 
guest  or  as  one  of  the  family;  no  one  knew  that  she  was  an 
object  of  charity.  This  concealing  the  misfortunes  of  their 
friends  or  protecting  them  has  created  the  impression  among 
many  that  the  Quakers  are  inordinately  rich. 

George  Newman  gives  an  idea  of  the  duties  of  an  English 
Friend:  "England's  great  contribution  to  the  world  has 
not  been  books  or  navies,  but  Ideals.  And  we  who  are 
Quakers,  it  is  not  for  us  as  a  Society  to  administer  the  Em- 
pire, to  legislate  for  communities,  to  redistribute  land  or 
wealth.  It  is  for  us,  and  I  press  it  as  a  great  duty  laid  upon 
us,  it  is  for  us  to  raise  in  a  materialistic  age  the  ideals  of 
social  reform.    More  than  external  environment,  more  than 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


257 


administration  of  law,  is  the  force  of  ideals — ideals  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Home,  of  Motherhood,  of  Self-control,  of 
Justice  and  of  Stewardship.  It  is  for  us  to  lift  the  eyes  of 
our  countrymen  to  the  glory  which  is  to  be,  to  make  dreams 
and  visions  possible,  to  teach  that  social  responsibility  rests 
upon  us  all,  and  that  personal  service  is  a  debt  which  all 
must  pay." 

From  this  it  must  not  be  deemed  that  Friends  do  not 
"administer  the  empire"  as,  if  their  full  influence  could  be 
summed  up,  it  could  be  shown  that  their  influence  in  politics 
has  been  potential.  John  Bright  was  one  of  the  greatest 
administrators  of  the  empire  England  has  ever  had;  he 
stands  as  a  milestone  in  the  advancement  of  this  the  great- 
est of  the  world's  nations.  I  met  in  England,  at  the  home 
of  Professor  Sylvanus  Thompson,  Mr.  Edmund  Harvey, 
now  representing  the  English  Friends  in  Parliament.  He  is 
"administering  the  empire"  and  devoting  his  life  to  the 
great  charities  and  philanthropies  in  which  he  is  interested. 

In  previous  chapters,  it  will  be  noticed  that  early  in  the 
contest  for  spiritual  life  and  entity,  the  Friends  spread 
abroad  and  carried  their  message  to  nearly  every  land.  A 
minute  of  the  General  Meeting  at  Skipton,  1660,  shows 
what  w^as  done  at  this  early  day:  "We  have  received 
certain  information  from  some  Friends  in  London  of  the 
great  w^ork  and  service  of  the  Lord  beyond  the  seas,  in  sev- 
eral parts  and  regions,  as  Germany,  America,  Virginia,  and 
many  other  places,  as  Florence,  Mantua,  Palatine,  Tuscany, 
Italy,  Rome,  Turkey,  Jerusalem,  France,  Geneva,  Norway, 
Barbadoes,  Bermuda,  Antigua,  Jamaica,  Surinam,  New- 
foundland, through  all  which  Friends  have  passed  in  the 

service  of  the  Lord,  and  divers  other  places,  countries, 
17 


258  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 

islands  and  nations,  and  over  and  among  many  nations  of 
the  Indians,  in  which  they  have  had  service  for  the  Lord  and 
have  published  His  name  and  declared  the  everlasting 
Gospel  of  peace  unto  them  that  have  been  afar  off,  that 
they  might  be  brought  nigh  unto  God." 

If  visiting  ministers  could  not  pay  their  way,  the  meeting 
provided  the  ''third"  as  the  expense  was  termed,  and  sent 
them.  E.  B.  Emmott  tells  the  story  of  Quaker  energies  in 
the  direction  of  India,  Madagascar,  Syria,  China  and  Cey- 
lon. The  work  of  William  Penn  is  referred  to  elsewhere, 
but  his  motive  in  going  to  America  was  to  aid  the  American 
Indians,  and  the  Quaker  treatment  of  them  up  to  1912  is  a 
reproach  to  all  other  governments  and  peoples.  Their  min- 
isters penetrated  to  extraordinary  lands  and  places.  Mary 
Fisher  visited  the  Sultan  Mahomet  IV.  in  1660,  and 
Stephen  Grellet,  James  Backhouse,  Joseph  John  Gurney, 
Daniel  Wheeler  and  others  travelled  to  many  lands.  Dan- 
iel Wheeler's  life  work  which  ended  in  New  York  in  1840 
reads  like  a  romance.  A  sailor,  soldier,  serving  in  Flanders 
in  1794,  converted  at  sea,  he  became  a  Friend  in  Sheffield, 
and  in  1816  became  a  minister.  He  was  now  invited  to 
Russia  by  the  Emperor  to  introduce  the  English  method  of 
farming.  This  accomplished,  he  visited  the  South  Sea 
Islands,  preaching,  and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent 
in  continual  Christian  endeavor. 

Joseph  Sturge,  previously  referred  to,  was  an  equally 
valuable  unit  in  this  organization  for  betterment  in  Eng- 
land. His  chief  work  was  for  peace  and  the  emancipation 
of  slavery.  The  Peace  Society  was  founded  in  1816,  fol- 
lowing the  Battle  of  Waterloo,  by  Joseph  Tregelles  Price, 
William  Allen  and  others,  and  in  1818  Sturge  organized 


REPRESEXrATIVE  EXGLISH  FRIEXDS! 
Isaac  Braithiraitr.  Daniel  Wheeler,  Joseph  Bevati  Braithiraite, 
Joseph  St  urge 


JORDAy'Fi  MEETING  HOIhSE  AyD  l\TEI{li>l{ 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


259 


an  auxiliary  of  the  Society  in  Worcester,  and  from  then 
until  the  day  of  his  death  in  1869,  he  worked  for  peace  or 
arbitration.  He  was  a  protestant  at  the  Chinese  war,  1839. 
He  addressed  a  peace  conference  in  Boston  in  1841,  and  was 
a  delegate  to  many  peace  conferences  in  London,  Germany, 
France  and  America.  In  1858  he  was  chosen  President  of 
the  Peace  Society.  His  work  against  slavery  was  equally 
important  and  he  was  a  factor  in  the  Act  passed  in  1834 
which  abolished  slavery  in  the  West  Indies.  In  1839  he 
founded  The  British  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and 
in  1840  the  convention  was  held  with  five  hundred  dele- 
gates present,  presided  over  by  Thomas  Clarkson. 

In  1841  Sturge  visited  America  to  investigate  slavery 
and  met  Whittier,  the  American  poet.  A  volume  might  be 
written  on  the  lives  of  these  British  Quakers,  of  the  early 
and  late  \^ictorian  period,  who  devoted  themselves  to  the 
cause  of  humanity  and  the  effort  to  make  their  country  first 
morally  as  well  as  a  world  power.  Dr.  William  Wilson, 
missionary  and  organizer,  stands  out  in  strong  relief  from 
1866  to  1909  for  his  remarkable  work  in  Madagascar, 
Ceylon,  Syria  and  India,  Joseph  Bevan  Braithwaite,  as 
well  known  in  America  as  in  England,  w^as  a  striking  figure 
among  the  English  Friends  of  the  Victorian  era.  He  began 
his  ministry  in  1844  and  travelled  practically  all  over  the 
world,  preaching  and  teaching.  The  telepathic  faculty,  if 
one  may  so  term  it,  so  often  noticed  in  Friends,  was  illus- 
trated in  Joseph  Bevan  Braithwaite,  when  he  was  riding 
with  the  son  of  Charles  F.  Coffin,  a  well  known  American 
Friend.  After  a  service  at  the  Indiana  Yearly  Meeting, 
with  his  friends,  George  Tatham,  Mayor  of  Leeds,  and 
Richard  Littleboy,  an  English  banker,  Braithwaite  ex- 


26o 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


pressed  a  "concern";  namely,  a  strong  inclination  to  ride, 
and  they  were  taken  to  New  Garden  by  Mr.  Coffin.  Near 
the  toll  gate  the  minister  said,  "Charles,  I  feel  a  call  to 
some  one  in  that  house."  Coffin  repeated  this  to  the  woman 
who  came  to  collect  the  toll :  "This  Friend  feels  a  concern 
towards  someone  here."  She  at  once  replied  that  her  hus- 
band was  very  ill,  and  would  be  glad  to  see  him,  so  they 
all  went  into  the  house  and  held  a  short  service,  most  ac- 
ceptable to  the  invalid,  who,  it  is  said,  had  the  "feeling 
that  a  messenger  had  come  to  him  from  above." 

The  peculiar  "sense"  of  the  Friends  by  which  they  had 
"concerns,"  is  an  interesting  subject  for  the  psychologist. 
Many  of  the  ministers  who  suddenly  decided  to  leave  home 
and  travel  were  instigated  by  this  "concern" ;  in  other 
words,  they  felt  a  strong  demand  upon  them  that  they  should 
go  to  certain  places.  This  was  seriously  presented  to  the 
meeting,  and  if  favorably  acted  upon,  the  meeting  would 
give  the  minister  a  letter  of  recommendation,  and  defray 
all  or  a  part  of  his  expenses. 

Two  English  Friends,  Caroline  E.  Talbot  and  Elizabeth 
Comstock,  both  living  in  America,  who  were  very  often 
influenced  in  this  way,  were  well  known  to  me.  I  once 
accompanied  the  latter  on  a  "concern"  to  the  prison  at 
Baltimore,  where  she  preached  to  the  prisoners  and  swayed 
a  vast  audience  in  a  miraculous  manner.  These  ministers 
were  noted  for  strange  and  interesting  happenings  or  experi- 
ences; the  result  of  "concerns"  which  formed  a  happy 
part  of  their  lives,  and  due  to  which  they  were  able  to 
accomplish  much  good. 

Mention  of  the  dominant  figures  in  the  Friends' 
Society    of    England    would    not    be    complete  with- 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


out  reference  to  Isaac  Sharp,  who  spent  his  life  in  visiting 
"widely  scattered  communities  of  Friends."  The  Society 
of  Friends  in  England  has  not  increased  as  rapidly  in  num- 
bers as  in  some  other  localities,  but  few  sects  have  made 
themselves  felt  more  in  the  general  uplift;  and  one  does  not 
need  to  visit  the  Westminster  or  other  meetings  in  London 
to  know  that  no  people  stand  higher,  or  exercise  a  stronger 
influence  than  the  Friends,  whose  word  is,  in  the  transac- 
tion of  business,  as  good  as  a  bond. 

There  is  at  the  present  time,  1913,  a  decided  increase  in 
interest  among  Friends,  and  they  number  in  all  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand,  as  follows : 

London  yearly  meeting,  including  Australia  general 


meeting    19,700 

Dublin  Yearly  Meeting   2,500 

Members  at  foreign  stations,  etc   2,800 

Europe,  South  Africa   300 

American  Yearly  Meetings   95,500 

American  foreign  stations  '  .  .  3,700 

Wilburite    12,000 


135,000 

London  may  be  considered  the  central  point  of  interest  of 
the  Society,  as  at  Devonshire  House,  there  is  a  treasure 
house  of  historical  data  relating  to  the  history  of  the 
Friends,  collected  by  Isaac  Sharp  and  Norman  Penney, 
members  of  the  Societ}*,  whose  influence  in  the  Society  is 
strong,  virile  and  enduring,  and  to  whom  all  American 
visiting  Friends  will  have  a  high  appreciation. 

In  the  year  1680  the  first  systematic  efForts  were  made 
according  to  Norman  Penny,  the  distinguished  librarian 


262  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


of  Devonshire  House,  to  collect  historical  data  relating  to 
the  Friends.  This  was  thirty  years  after  George  Fox  began 
his  work.  In  1704  ''Directions  to  collect  matters  for  a 
general  history  of  the  Entrance  and  Progress  of  Truth  in 
this  age,  by  way  of  Annals"  was  made,  but  it  was  not  until 
that  active,  reliable  work  was  begun  in  the  way  of  securing 
data;  and  in  1907  Devonshire  House  issued  its  first  volume 
of  "The  First  Publishers  of  Truth,"  which  relates  to  many 
old  manuscripts  which  have  long  been  held  in  the  strong 
room. 

Among  the  many  Friends  who  did  yoeman  service  in  the 
Victorian  Era  are,  George  Richardson  of  Newcastle-on- 
Tyne,  deeply  interested  in  foreign  missions,  Rachel  Metcalf 
whose  work  in  Indian  schools  has  been  of  great  value,  the 
Friends  having  a  district  in  India  as  large  as  Scotland, 
about  five  hundred  miles  east  of  Bombay.  One  recalls 
David  Jones  and  Thomas  Bevan  when  thinking  of  Mada- 
gascar, Joseph  S.  Sewell,  Louis  and  Sarah  Street,  and  in 
1867,  Helen  Gilpin.  These  Friends  had  over  two  hundred 
thousand  natives  under  their  care  and  a  district  as  large 
as  Middlesex,  Essex  and  Hertfordshire.  Robert  J.  and 
Mary  J.  Davidson  carry  on  the  Friends  mission  work  in 
West  China,  and  the  English  Friends  have  constantly 
fought  the  opium  curse  of  China. 

"Take  away  your  opium,"  said  a  Chinaman  to  an  Eng- 
lish Missionary,  and  "Then  we  will  be  ready  to  talk  about 
your  Ya  Su  (Jesus),"  a  sentence  that  speaks  with  the 
volume  of  a  thousand  conferences  and  conventions.  In 
1896  Joseph  and  Francis  J.  Malcomson  began  work  in 
the  mission  field  of  Ceylon,  and  to-day  eleven  Friends  and 
sixty  natives   are   working   for   the   moral  uplift.  The 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


263 


Friends'  Foreign  Missionary  Association  in  the  fullness  of 
its  work  alone  is  a  sufficient  apology,  if  one  were  demanded, 
for  the  English  Invasion  of  Quakers  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century,  and  it  should  be  emphasized  that  the  work  of 
Friends  is  not  to  be  expressed  by  their  numerical  strength. 

There  are  five  great  "fields"  of  work  of  the  F.  F.  M.  A. : 
India,  Syria,  (in  which  Sybil  and  Eli  Jones  labored  so 
faithfully),  Madagascar,  China  and  Ceylon.  Besides  these 
centres,  work  is  done  in  France,  Japan,  Constantinople, 
Armenia,  Pemba  and  other  places.  Work  of  intense  in- 
terest and  value,  as  shown  by  the  1907  annual  report  of  the 
Association  ''Our  Missions."  A  strong  and  helpful  associa- 
tion is  The  Missionaries  Helpers  Union,  founded  in  1883 
by  Ellen  Barclay,  which  now  has  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  branches.  In  the  world  at  large  one  hears  but  little 
of  the  work  of  English  Friends  because  the  innate  modesty 
which  found  its  first  expression  in  1650,  "let  not  thy  right 
hand,"  etc.  still  holds;  but  the  Friends  have  suggested  many 
of  the  most  important  religious  works  in  England.  They 
do  not  advertise  their  good  deeds,  and  often  unknown  and 
unheralded,  stand  behind  other  societies  with  financial  and 
other  aid ;  in  a  word,  it  is  not  credit  but  results  they  aim  at. 
The  outlook  of  the  Friends  in  England  is  distinctly  encour- 
aging. The  London  Yearly  Meeting  includes  England, 
Scotland,  Wales  and  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  South 
Africa.  Ireland  has  in  Dublin  a  strong  half  yearly  meeting, 
which  was  established  in  1670  and  has  continued  without 
break  since  1793. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  methods  of  the  Friends 
in  securing  in  perpetuity  the  near  to  perfection  moral  tone 
of  its  people,  which  is  the  most  extraordinary  feature  of  its 


264  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


corporate  body.  Eternal  vigilance  has  been  the  rule.  The 
mere  suspicion  of  evil  or  digression  from  the  standard  is 
noted,  and  if  the  offending  party  cannot  conform  to  the 
standard  after  repeated  conferences,  as  a  last  resort,  he 
or  she  is  "disowned."  By  elimination  and  jurisdiction,  then 
the  Society  of  Friends  has  produced  this  extraordinary  body, 
so  strong  a  factor  in  the  moral  uplift  of  England.  To  come 
to  the  actual  methods  of  these  people,  the  modus  operandi 
of  spiritual  purification,  or  the  method  of  not  only  being 
good  but  of  keeping  good,  we  see  it  in  the  time-honored 
system  of  "Queries,"  which  are  an  everpresent  feature  of 
all  meetings.  The  following  are  Queries  issued  by  the 
English  Friends  Meeting,  and  read  by  the  clerk  to  the 
assemblage. 

1st.  What  is  the  religious  state  of  your  Meeting'?  Are 
you,  individually,  giving  evidence  of  true  conversion  of 
heart,  and  of  loving  devotedness  to  Christ? 

2nd.  Are  your  Meetings  for  worship  regularly  held; 
and  how  are  they  attended'?  Are  they  occasions  of  religious 
solemnity  and  edification,  in  which,  through  Christ,  our  ever- 
living  High  Priest  and  Intercessor,  the  Father,  is  worshiped 
in  Spirit  and  in  truth? 

3rd.  Do  you  "walk  in  love,  as  Christ  also  hath  loved 
us?"  Do  you  cherish  a  forgiving  spirit?  Are  you  careful 
of  the  reputation  of  others;  and  do  you  avoid  and  discour- 
age tale-bearing  and  detraction? 

4th.  Are  you  individually  frequent  in  reading,  and  dili- 
gent in  meditating  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures?  Are  parents 
and  heads  of  households  in  the  practice  of  reading  them  in 
their  families  in  a  devotional  spirit,  encouraging  any  right 
utterance  of  prayer  or  praise? 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  265 


5th.  Are  you  in  the  practice  of  private  retirement  and 
waiting  upon  the  Lord;  in  everything  by  prayer  and  sup- 
plication, making  your  requests  known  unto  him'?  And 
do  you  live  in  habitual  dependence  upon  the  help  and  guid- 
ance of  the  Holy  Spirit'? 

6th.  Do  you  maintain  a  religious  life  and  conversation 
as  becometh  the  Gospel^  Are  you  watchful  against  con- 
formity to  the  world;  against  the  love  of  ease  and  self-in- 
dulgence; or  being  unduly  absorbed  by  your  outward  con- 
cerns to  the  hindrance  of  your  religious  progress  and  your 
service  for  Christ  And  do  those  who  have  children  or 
others  under  their  care  endeavor,  by  example  and  precept, 
to  train  them  up  as  self-denying  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus'? 

7th.  Do  you  maintain  a  faithful  allegiance  to  the 
authority  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  one  Head  of  the 
Church,  and  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,  from  whom 
alone  must  come  the  true  call  for  qualification  and  ministry 
of  the  World?  And  are  you  faithful  in  your  testimony  to 
the  freeness  and  spirituality  of  the  Gospel  dispensation? 

8th.  Are  you  faithful  in  maintaining  our  Christian 
testimony  against  all  war,  as  inconsistent  with  the  precepts 
and  spirit  of  the  Gospel'? 

9th.  Do  you  maintain  strict  integrity  in  all  your  trans- 
actions in  trade,  and  in  your  other  outward  concerns'?  And 
are  you  careful  not  to  defraud  the  public  revenue'? 

10th.  Are  your  meetings  for  Church  affairs  regularly 
held,  and  how  are  they  attended'?  Are  these  Meetings 
vigilant  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  toward  their  sub- 
ordinate Meetings,  and  in  watching  over  the  flock  in  the 
love  of  Christ?  When  delinquencies  occur,  are  they  treated 
timely,  impartially,  and  in  a  Christian  spirit?   And  do  you. 


266 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


individually,  take  your  right  share  in  the  attendance  and 
service  of  these  Meetings'? 

1  ith.  Do  you,  as  a  Church,  exercise  a  loving  and  watch- 
ful care  over  the  young  people  in  your  different  congrega- 
tions; promoting  their  instruction  in  fundamental  Christian 
truth  and  in  the  Spiritual  grounds  of  our  religious  prin- 
ciples; and  manifesting  an  earnest  desire  that,  through  the 
power  of  Divine  grace,  they  may  all  become  established 
in  the  faith  and  hope  of  the  Gospel'? 

12th.  Do  you  fulfill  your  part  as  a  Church,  and  as 
individuals,  in  promoting  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, and  the  spread  of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom  at  home 
and  abroad?" 

The  following  are  general  advices  addressed  by  the 
English  Meeting  to  "our  members"  and  to  all  who  meet 
with  us  in  public  worship:  "Take  heed,  dear  Friends,  we 
entreat  you,  to  the  conviction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
leads,  through  unfeigned  repentance,  and  living  faith  in  the 
Son  of  God,  to  reconciliation  with  our  Heavenly  Father, 
and  to  the  blessed  hope  of  eternal  life,  purchased  for  us 
by  the  one  offering  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

"Be  earnestly  concerned  in  religious  meetings  reverently 
to  present  yourselves  before  the  Lord;  and  seek,  by  the 
help  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  worship  God  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

"Prize  the  privilege  of  access  to  Him  unto  the  Father. 
Continue  instant  in  prayer,  and  watch  in  the  same  with 
thanksgiving. 

"Be  in  frequent  practice  of  waiting  upon  the  Lord  in 
private  retirement,  honestly  examining  yourselves  as  to 
your  growth  in  grace,  and  your  preparation  for  the  life  to 
come. 


t 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  267 

"Be  diligent  in  the  private  perusal  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures; and  let  the  daily  reading  of  them  in  your  families 
be  devoutly  conducted. 

''Be  careful  to  make  a  profitable  and  religious  use  of 
those  portions  of  time  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which 
are  not  occupied  by  our  Meetings  for  Worship. 

''Live  in  love  as  Christian  brethren,  ready  to  be  helpful 
one  to  another,  and  sympathizing  with  each  other  in  the 
trials  and  afflictions  of  life.  Watch  over  one  another  for 
good,  manifesting  an  earnest  desire  that  each  may  possess 
a  well-grounded  hope  in  Christ. 

'Tollow  peace  with  all  men,  desiring  true  happiness  of 
all.  Be  kind  and  liberal  to  the  poor;  and  endeavor  to 
promote  the  temporal,  moral  and  religious  well-being  of 
your  fellowmen. 

"With  a  tender  conscience,  in  accordance  with  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Gospel,  take  heed  to  the  limitations  of  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  in  the  pursuit  of  the  things  of  this  life. 

"Maintain  strict  integrity  in  your  transactions  in  trade, 
and  in  all  your  outward  concerns.  Guard  against  the  spirit 
of  speculation,  and  the  snare  of  accumulating  wealth.  Re- 
member that  we  must  account  for  the  mode  of  acquiring,  as 
well  as  for  the  manner  of  using,  and  finally  disposing  of, 
your  possessions. 

"Observe  simplicity  and  moderation  in  your  deportment 
and  attire,  in  the  furniture  in  your  houses,  and  in  your  style 
and  manner  of  living.  Carefully  maintain  in  your  own 
conduct,  and  encourage  in  your  families,  truthfulness  and 
sincerity;  and  avoid  worldliness  in  all  its  forms. 

"Guard  watchfully  against  the  introduction  into  your 
households  of  publications   of   a  hurtful   tendency  I  and 


268  THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


against  such  companionships,  indulgences,  and  recreations, 
whether  for  yourselves  or  your  children,  as  may  in  any  wise 
interfere  with  a  growth  of  grace. 

"Avoid  and  discourage  every  kind  of  betting  and  gam- 
bling, and  such  speculation  in  commercial  life  as  partakes 
of  a  gambling  character. 

"In  view  of  the  manifold  evils  arising  from  the  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors,  prayerfully  consider  whether  your 
duty  to  God  and  to  your  neighbor  does  not  require  you  to 
abstain  from  using  them  yourselves  or  offering  them  to 
others,  and  from  having  any  share  in  their  manufacture  or 
sale. 

"Let  the  poor  of  this  world  remember  that  it  is  our 
Heavenly  Father's  will  that  all  His  children  should  be  rich 
in  faith.  Let  your  lights  shine  in  lives  of  honest  industry, 
and  patient  love.  Do  your  utmost  to  maintain  yourselves 
and  your  families  in  an  honourable  position,  and,  by  prud- 
ent care  in  time  of  health,  to  provide  for  sickness  and  old 
age,  holding  fast  by  the  promise,  'I  will  never  leave  thee 
nor  forsake  thee.' 

"In  contemplating  the  engagement  of  marriage,  look 
principally  to  that  which  will  help  you  on  your  heaven- 
ward journey.  Pay  filial  regard  to  the  judgment  of  your 
parents.  Bear  in  mind  the  vast  importance,  in  such  a  union, 
of  an  accordance  in  religious  principles  and  practice.  Ask 
counsel  of  God;  desiring,  above  all  temporal  considerations, 
that  your  union  may  be  owned  and  blessed  of  Him. 

"Watch  with  Christian  tenderness  over  the  opening  minds 
of  your  children;  inure  them  to  habits  of  self-restraint  and 
filial  obedience;  carefully  instruct  them  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  and  seek  for  ability  to  imbue  their 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  269 


hearts  with  the  love  of  their  Heavenly  Father,  their  Re- 
deemer, and  Sanctifier. 

"Finally,  dear  Friends,  let  your  whole  conduct  and  con- 
versation be  such  as  become  the  Gospel.  Exercise  your- 
selves to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offense  toward 
God  and  toward  men.  Be  steadfast  and  faithful  in  your 
allegiance  and  service  to  your  Lord;  continue  in  his  love; 
endeavoring  to  'keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond 
of  peace'." 

It  is  the  following  of  such  precepts,  the  reiteration  of 
these  Queries,  and  the  insistence  of  committees  and  fellow 
members  that  has  built  up  and  produced  the  Society  of 
Friends  in  England,  a  dominant  spiritual,  civic  and  polit- 
ical force,  that  has  aided  in  making  England  what  it  is, 
a  leading  Christian  nation  of  the  world. 

The  Quakers  have  been  so  modest  and  retiring  that  few 
of  their  deeds  have  reached  the  world  at  large.  We  hear 
much  of  their  so-called  peculiarities,  their  silent  meetings, 
their  "thee"  and  "thou";  but  how  many  persons  know  that 
the  Quaker,  Edmund  Pease  of  Darlington,  financed  and 
made  possible  the  first  railw^ay  line  in  England,  the  one 
between  Stockton  and  Darlington.  His  clear,  working 
mind  saw  the  inestimable  advantages  to  mankind,  and  in 
the  face  of  much  quiet  sarcasm  from  the  business  men  of 
the  time,  he  came  to  the  front.  The  fine  midland  system 
was  the  work  of  Friend  Ellis  of  Leicester.  The  first  rail- 
way guide  was  invented  or  conceived  by  a  Quaker  named 
Bradshaw,  while  another  Quaker,  quick  to  perceive  that  the 
method  of  "booking"  was  cumbersome,  invented  the  rail- 
way ticket  and  the  machine  for  stamping  it.  Some  of  the 
largest  importers  of  England  have  been  Quakers.   The  cocoa 


270 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


trade  was  organized  by  the  Cadburys  of  Burmingham,  the 
Frys  of  Bristol  and  Rowntrees  of  York.  It  was  a  Quaker 
named  Bryant  who  conceived  the  idea  of  the  modern  match. 
One  day  he  dipped  a  sliver  of  wood  into  phosphorus, 
scratched  it,  and  presto  I  the  modern  match  came  into  use, 
and  with  the  man  to  whom  he  first  showed  it,  a  Quaker 
named  May,  he  began  manufacturing.  Bryant  and  May 
held  a  large  place  in  the  economic  honor  list  of  the  world's 
little  known  industrial  celebrities.  It  was  a  Quaker 
(Rickett)  who  made  a  fortune  by  discovering  that  a  cer- 
tain blue  would  give  an  attractive  color  to  white  cloths 
when  being  laundered.  It  is  the  small  things  which  often 
produce  the  greatest  results.  Elizabeth  Fry,  by  visiting 
felons  and  trying  quietly  to  alleviate  their  condition,  started 
prison  reform. 

Among  Elizabeth  Fry's  descendants  are  Sir  Theodore 
Fry,  well  known  for  his  philanthropy  and  interest  in  the 
great  economic  questions  underlying  good  government.  He 
is  the  head  of  the  great  iron  manufacturing  firm  of  Theodore 
Fry  &  Company,  Limited;  the  famous  ex-judge  of  the 
Appeal  Court,  Sir  Edward  Fry,  and  the  member  of  Parlia- 
ment for  the  Northern  Division  of  Bristol,  Mr.  Louis  Fry, 
are  also  descendants  of  this  distinguished  and  beautiful 
woman,  whose  influence  is  still  active  and  whose  memory 
is  honored  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken. 

Many  Quaker  families  in  England  used  little  round 
cakes,  and  thinking  the  world  at  large  would  be  interested, 
one  of  their  number  named  Palmer  began  the  manufactury 
of  crackers  at  Redding,  and  the  great  manufacturing  firm 
of  Huntley  &  Palmer  became  famous.  On  the  banks  of 
the  Thames  stands  the  famous  Cleopatra  Needle.  When 


ELIZABETH  ERY 
Founder  of  "Pt  'ison  Ixcfoi'i 


Gulielmu  Perm 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  271 


the  subject  of  bringing  it  from  Alexandria,  Egypt,  was  first 
suggested,  it  was  considered  impossible.  Indeed,  it  was 
hinted  that  the  Khedive  had  given  it  to  England  believing 
that  the  British  with  all  their  cleverness  could  not  carry 
it  off.  Numbers  of  engineers  were  consulted,  but  the  deed 
was  finally  accomplished  by  two  English  Quaker  engineers. 
A  Friend  named  Tange  lifted  it  and  brought  it  to  England, 
where  another  Quaker  engineer  by  the  name  of  Dixie, 
poised  it  accurately  on  its  pedestal.  There  is  hardly  a 
great  institution  in  trade  in  the  empire  that  has  not  been 
elevated,  dignified,  or  improved  by  the  Quakers.  The 
marvelous  banking  system  of  Great  Britain  owes  its  influ- 
ence and  stability,  its  very  existence,  to  the  Quakers,  Gurney 
&  Company,  Oberend,  Barclay,  Bevan  &  Company.  The 
founder  of  the  latter  house  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  Robert 
Barclay,  so  often  referred  to  in  this  volume,  whom  Whittier, 
the  American  poet  immortalized  as  The  Laird  of  Ury. 
Lord  Lister,  who  discovered  anti-septic  surgery,  and  for 
whom  Listerine  and  various  anti-septics  are  named,  was  a 
plain  Friend,  who  indirectly  saved  thousands  of  lives  by 
his  simple  attempts  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  patients 
in  the  hospitals.  Another  Friend,  Dr.  Birkbeck,  founded 
the  first  Mechanics  Institute.  Neal  Dow,  the  temperance 
reformer,  was  an  English  Friend.  William  Edward  Forster, 
Quaker,  was  the  founder  of  the  Education  Acts  that  have 
been  productive  of  widespread  good. 

During  a  ride  along  the  Rivera  in  1911  I  crossed  the 
Italian  line,  and  heard  that  a  Quaker  had  made  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  gardens  in  the  world  on  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean.  A  day  was  spent  in  the  grounds  of  Mor- 
tola,  enjoying  its  radiant  vistas,  its  long  reaches  of  verdure, 


272 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


its  trees,  shrubs  and  plants  from  every  clime,  backed  against 
the  splendid  blue  of  the  Mediterranean. 

This  was  Mortola,  the  Italian  home  of  the  Marquis  of 
Mortola,  once  Sir  Thomas  Hanbury,  famous  as  a  Quaker 
botanist  and  chemist.  A  small  entrance  fee  was  charged  for 
the  benefit  of  local  charities,  and  the  beautiful  estate  an  in- 
spiration in  every  sense,  was  practically  open  to  the  world. 
Thomas  Lawson,  a  friend  of  William  Penn,  was  also  a  well 
known  botanist.  He  refers  to  his  work  in  the  following 
letter  to  Sir  John  Rodes : 

"Greatstrickland,  18  of  mo. — 90. 

My  Friend : — 

Though  unknown  by  face,  yet  hearing  several 
months  ago,  that  thou  was  tinctur'd  with  inclination  after 
the  knowleldge  of  plants,  the  products  of  the  earth,  I  am 
induc'd  to  write  these  lines  unto  thee.  Several  years  I 
have  been  concern'd  in  schooling,  yet,  as  troubles  attended 
me  for  Nonconformity,  I  made  it  my  business  to  search  most 
countries  and  corners  of  this  land,  with  severall  of  pro- 
monteries,  islands,  and  peninsulas  thereof,  in  order  to  ob- 
serve the  variety  of  plants  there  described  or  nondescripts, 
as,  also.  Monuments,  Antiquities,  Memorable  things,  where- 
by I  came  to  be  acquainted  with  most  of  the  Lovers  of 
Botany  and  of  other  rarities  of  the  Royal  Society  and 
others,  in  this  Kingdom  and  other  places. 

Now  some  years  ago,  George  Fox,  William  Penn,  and 
others  were  concerned  to  purchase  a  piece  of  land  near  Lon- 
don for  the  use  of  a  Garden  Schoolhouse  and  a  dwelling- 
house  for  the  Master,  in  which  garden,  one  or  two  or  more 
of  each  sorte  of  our  English  plants  were  to  be  planted,  as 
also  many  outlandish  plants.    My  purpose  was  to  write  a 


r 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


273 


book  on  these  in  Latin,  so  as  a  boy  had  the  description  of 
these  in  book-lessons,  and  their  virtues,  he  might  see  these 
growing  in  the  garden,  or  plantation,  to  gaine  the  know- 
ledge of  them ;  but  persecutions  and  troubles  obstructed  the 
prosecution  hereof,  which  the  Master  of  Christ's  College  in 
Cambridge  hearing  of,  told  me  was  a  noble  and  honourable 
undertaking,  and  would  fill  the  Nation  with  philosophers. 
Adam  and  his  posterity,  if  the  primitive  originall  station 
had  been  kept,  had  had  no  book  to  mind,  but  God  himself, 
the  book  of  life,  and  the  book  of  the  Creation,  and  they  that 
grow  up  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  his  Creation, 
they  are  the  true  philosophers.  Solomon  wrote  from  the 
Cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the  hysop  upon  the  wall ;  the  works  of 
the  Lord,  saith  the  holy  man,  are  wonderful,  sought  out  by 
those  that  have  a  pleasure  therein,  his  Work  within  and  his 
Works  without,  even  the  least  of  plants  preaches  forth  the 
power  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator,  and  ey'd  in  the 
sparke  of  eternity,  humbles  man. 

Now,  if  thou  have  an  inclination  after  these  things,  and 
dost  conclude  the  knowledge  of  them  usefull,  I  could  will- 
ingly abandon  my  employ  of  schooling  here,  and,  being  with 
thee,  lay  out  myself e  for  thy  improvement  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew ;  and  for  the  knowledge  of  plants,  and  without 
any  great  charge,  could  bring  in  2  or  3  of  the  most  parte  or 
of  all  the  trees  and  shrubs  and  plants  in  England,  into  a 
plot  of  ground  for  that  purpose  prepared,  and  many  out- 
landish plants  also. 

And  if  thou  would  incline  to  the  propagating  of  wood,  we 
might  prepare  a  nourcery  (nursery),  where  seeds  being 
sown,  and  young  plants  set  to  grow  till  fit  to  be  removed 
into  other  grounds — a  work  in  no  ways  dishonourable,  but 
very  useful  and  profitable. 

18 


274 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


I  have  not  much  more  to  write,  but  unfeignedly  to  ac- 
quaint thee  that  want  of  employ  or  beneficial  place  is  not 
the  primum  mobile^  as  I  may  say,  which,  if  I  were  there,  I 
could  satisfy  thee  herein. 

I  purpose,  also,  (if  the  Lord  please,)  to  put  forth  an 
Herbal  specialty  of  English  plants.  I  am  also  pretty  for- 
ward with  a  piece  I  call  Flosculi  Brittannie^  given  in  Lat.  a 
description  of  every  country  in  England,  the  principal  pro- 
ducts of  each  county,  why  Cities,  Towns,  Rivers  are  called 
as  they  are  called,  and  of  the  Antiquities,  monuments, 
memorable  occurrences,  tropical  plants  of  each  county,  in 
reading  of  which  a  scholar  not  only  improves  in  the 
language  but  can  give  an  account  of  the  nation,  as  if  he  had 
travel'd  it  through. 

No  more,  but  unfeign'd  love  to  thee  and  to  thy  Mother 
to  whom  I  desire  thee  to  show  this,  and  I  desire  a  few  lines 
shortly  from  thee,  Thy  truly  Lo.  ffrd, 

Tho.  Lawson."* 
The  farmer  is  indebted  to  a  Quaker,  Ransome,  of 
Ipswich,  for  the  first  chilled  plough,  the  manufacture  of 
which  became  an  important  business,  employing  hundreds 
of  men.  The  vast  foundries  at  Coalbrookdale,  England, 
well  known  during  at  least  three  generations,  were  founded 
by  a  Quaker  named  Abraham,  who  brought  over  the  secret 
of  casting  iron  from  Holland. 

Many  of  the  greatest  names  in  England  have  come  from 
Quaker  ancestors  or  have  family  ties  with  them.  London 

*I  am  indebted  to  Mrs.  Godfrey  Locker  Lampson,  author  of  "A 
Quaker  Post  Bag,"  published  by  Longmans  Green  &  Co.,  for  permis- 
sion to  copy  this  and  the  foregoing  letter  from  William  Penn  to  Sir 
John  Rodes. 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  275 


has  had  at  least  two  Quaker  lord  mayors,  Sir  Robert  Fowler, 
of  Quaker  family,  having  served  twice.  Sir  Walter  Scott 
had  Quaker  blood  in  his  veins.  Lord  Macaulay,  the  histor- 
ian, was  a  descendant  of  Quakers,  his  mother  being  one. 
The  decipherer  of  the  Egyptian  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  was 
a  Quaker,  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson.  Modern  shipbuilding 
owes  much  to  the  Quakers.  The  first  large  shipbuilder  in 
America  was  the  author's  second  great  grandfather  Daniel 
Holder,  a  Quaker,  (1750),  of  Nantucket.  The  splendid 
trans-oceanic  service  to-day  accomplished  by  the  Cunards,  is 
due  to  the  Quaker,  Sir  Samuel  Cunard,  who  founded  Atlantic 
steam  navigation.  Examinations  into  the  dominant  influ- 
ences and  personalities  in  every  department  of  life  discovers 
a  Quaker  or  some  one  of  Quaker  descent.  In  law,  Lord 
Lyndhurst ;  engineering,  Bolton,  who  made  the  Watt  engine 
practical.  Dr.  Tregellis,  the  Bible  student;  the  tutor  of 
King  Edward,  Dr.  Birch;  and  in  philanthropy.  Sir  T. 
Fowell.  Among  modern  scientists  we  have  Professor 
Sylvanus  Thompson.  Indeed,  if  mere  mention  of  the 
names  of  Friends  of  distinction  was  made,  the  list  would  be 
long  and  suggestive.  They  set  an  example  to  the  world  for 
pure,  clean  business  and  living,  and  that  they  had  a  pre- 
eminently practical  side  of  inestimable  value  to  the  world, 
is  more  than  evidenced. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION. 

In  the  review  of  the  political  and  religious  evolution  of 
the  English  Friends  or  Quakers  it  will  have  been  observed 
that  the  primal  or  original  intention  of  George  Fox  was  not 
to  organize  a  Society,  to  form  a  church,  or  to  collect  about 
him  a  band  of  followers.  In  plain  words,  he  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  immorality  of  the  times,  the  tendency  to  sensuous 
life  and  living,  and  felt  called  upon  to  rebuke  it.  This  call, 
"concern,"  urgent  conscientiousness,  unrest,  call  it  what  you 
will,  was  believed  by  him  to  be  the  voice  of  God,  speaking 
to  him  and  urging  him  on  to  rebuke  the  existent  condition 
of  things.  He  obeyed  it.  Followers  accumulated,  and  the 
demand  for  organization  came  as  a  natural  sequence  or 
effect  of  the  dominant  cause  of  Quakerism.  The  evolution 
of  the  Society  has  been  sketched  side  by  side  with  the  polit- 
ical events  in  England,  which  affected  it,  but  I  refer  now  to 
the  assumption  of  shape  and  form  of  the  meeting. 

The  first  meetings  were  in  private  houses,  as  at  Judge 
Fell's  and  others,  but  when  organization  was  attempted  they 
followed  the  general  plan  of  simplicity  which  characterized 
all  the  life  of  the  Friends.  The  policy  was  to  do  away  with 
paid  ministry,  with  all  form,  yet  it  was  evident  that  some 
distinctive  organization  and  head  or  responsible  members 
would  have  to  have  a  place,  and  we  find  instead  of  Bishops, 
presbyteries  and  deacons  which  held  in  the  nonconformist 
churches,  they  had  ministers,  elders  and  over-seers.  In  a 
word,  these  three  individualities  were  found  to  be  insistent. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION  277 


and  forced  themselves  on  the  Society,  or  could  not  be 
avoided.  These  terms  held  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, but  Robert  Barclay  claimed  that  in  the  seventeenth 
century  an  elder  was  an  "acknowledged  minister."  The 
typical  English  meeting  was  a  plainly  furnished  room  with 
one  ''high  seat,"  and  usually  a  "facing  seat"  below  the 
former.  In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  "el- 
ders," at  least  in  America,  sat  there,  while  the  ministers  who 
habitually  spoke  occupied  the  "high  seat,"  the  women  on 
one  side,  the  men  on  the  other.  Later,  in  m.ore  elaborate 
meetings  there  were  rooms  for  the  business  meetings  of  men 
or  women;  or  the  meeting  house  could  be  divided  with 
doors  or  partitions.  Many  of  the  old  meeting  houses  are 
now  in  use  in  England,  and  attractive  in  their  primitive 
simplicity. 

What  organization  there  was  at  £rst  came  about  as  a  re- 
sult of  Friends  endeavoring  to  help  their  companions  in 
jails.  It  was  necessary  to  have  some  system,  some  organ- 
ization to  carry  on  this  work  thoroughly.  In  1653  the 
Friends  of  Durham  held  a  monthly  meeting,  and  in  the  bus- 
iness transacted  here  they  decided  that  "some  of  every  meet- 
ing" should  meet  "every  first  seventh  day  of  each  month." 
Swarthmore.  Meeting  at  the  home  of  Judge  Fell  soon  adop- 
ted this,  and  very  deliberately,  and  in  the  face  of  some  op- 
position, it  became  the  custom. 

The  first  General  Meeting,  as  we  have  seen,  was  held  at 
Swannington  in  1654,  and  was  attended  not  only  by  Qua- 
kers, but  "Ranters,  Baptists,  and  other  professors  came."  At 
these  meetings  money  was  raised  for  the  aid  of  imprisoned 
Friends,  and  inquiries  made  and  reports  received.  And  we 
see  the  incipient  "business  meeting"  in  an  early  stage  of  its 


278    THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION 


evolution;  or  as  T.  Edmund  Harvey  M.  P.  says  in  his  "Rise 
of  the  Quakers,"  thus  we  have  at  once  the  germs  of  a  busi- 
ness meeting  for  church  affairs,  and  it  would  seem  that 
minutes  made  at  the  General  Meeting  were  taken  home  by 
Friends  attending  it  in  their  own  districts." 

The  General  Meeting  doubtless  soon  took  shape  as  a  dis- 
tinctive Friends  Meeting,  as  George  Fox  says,  "And  so  to 
Skipton  where  there  was  a  General  Meeting  of  Men 
Friends."*  And  again,  "We  came  to  Street  and  to  William 
Beatons  at  Puddimore,  where  we  had  a  very  large  "General 
Meeting." 

In  this  General  Meeting  are  found  the  elements  of  the 
Quarterly  and  Yearly  Meetings  of  to-day.  The  name  yearly 
was  doubtless  first  employed  at  Scalehouse  Skipton,  in 
1658,  and  on  sixth  month,  ninth,  1661,  George  Rolf  atten- 
ded a  General  Meeting  in  Newport,  America.  In  1666 
George  Fox  writes,  "then  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to 
recommend  the  setting  up  of  five  monthly  meetings  of  men 
and  women  in  the  City  of  London."  Fox  evidently  had 
studied  the  situation  carefully,  and  his  plan,  which  ulti- 
mately worked  out,  was  remarkable  for  its  efficiency  and  in 
holding  the  people  together  in  widely  separate  districts.  His 
plan  was  as  follows:  He  collected  a  certain  number  of 
Meetings  in  a  neighborhood  into  a  Monthly  Meeting.  In 
other  words,  once  a  month  representatives  of  the  men  and 
women  in  these  meetings  attended  the  central  Monthly 
Meeting.   Then  over  larger  districts  (including  the  Monthly 

*William  Beaton  was  a  Friend  of  large  means.  I  have  in  my  pos- 
session a  copy  of  his  widow's  will.  She  became  in  1682  the  third  wife 
of  Christopher  Holder  and  upon  her  death  left  part  of  her  estate  to 
the  three  children  of  Christopher  Holder  2nd. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION  279 


Meetings)  he  established  Quarterly  Meetings,  to  which 
delegates  and  representatives  went. 

Finally  over  all  was  the  Yearly  Meetings,  at  which  the 
entire  country  was  represented  as  to-day.  The  Yearly 
Meeting  of  London,  includes  England,  Scotland  and  Aus- 
tralia. Harvey  says:  "It  was  in  the  Monthly  Meetings 
that  the  life  of  the  early  Quaker  organization  was  centered, 
but  four  times  a  year  delegates  from  a  group  of  these  met 
along  with  others  who  were  able  to  attend  in  the  Quarterly 
Meeting,  whose  boundaries  usually  followed  those  of  the 
different  counties,  while  from  1672  onwards  these  were  in 
their  turn  grouped  together  into  a  Yearly  Meeting  for  the 
whole  country,  which  was  regularly  held  from  this  date  on- 
wards in  London  about  Whitsuntide.  The  earlier  General 
Meetings  which  had  preceded  this  still  continued  to  be  held 
at  Bristol  and  in  other  places  for  long  after  this  date, 
though  they  soon  ceased  to  have  legislative  power.  A 
Yearly  Meeting  for  Women  Friends  was  held  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth,  and  the  first  few  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  York,  issuing  an  Epistle  and  corre- 
sponding with  subordinate  Meetings. 

At  length,  after  a  considerable  interval  of  time,  a  Wom- 
en's Yearly  Meeting  was  established  in  1784,  in  London, 
at  the  same  time  as  the  Yearly  Meeting  for  men,  and  since 
1896  these  have  met  in  joint  session  when  matters  involving 
decisions  of  importance  to  the  whole  Society  are  under  dis- 
cussion." 

There  was  still  another  meeting  in  London  in  1673,  the 
"Second  Day  Morning  Meeting."  This  was  held  at 
private  homes  and  attended  by  visiting  Friends.  Harvey 
says  regarding  it:    "At  its  first  recorded  sitting  the  "Morn- 


28o    THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION 


ing  Meeting"  directed  Ellis  Hookes,  the  cleark  of  the  Yearly 
Meeting,  to  attend  in  future  to  record  its  minutes,  and  after 
meeting  for  some  time  at  various  houses  (such  as  that  of 
Gerard  Roberts,  and  that  of  Ann  Travers,  at  Horslydown) 
it  soon  came  to  meet  regularly  in  the  clerk's  chamber.  We 
find  this  body  approving  the  establishment  of  new  Meetings 
in  London  or  the  neighborhood,  sending  out  (27  XI  1689) 
a  paper  to  the  various  Quarterly  Meetings  and  Monthly 
Meetings  on  the  question  of  marriages,  answering  epistles 
from  abroad,  and  from  various  Quarterly  Meetings  at 
home,  and  receiving  complaints  as  to  Friends  traveling  as 
ministers  whose  services  were  felt  to  be  misplaced,  and 
authorizing  others  to  go  on  service  both  at  home  and 
abroad." 

The  method  followed  in  1675  was,  that  quarterly  repre- 
sentatives or  delegates  for  all  the  districts  should  meet  in 
London  to  receive  reports  and  take  action.  In  these  meet- 
ings, the  representatives  from  London  Meetings  acted  as  a 
sub-committee  with  powers  to  call  the  meeting  whenever  oc- 
casion required.  This  "quarterly"  was  ultimately  merged 
into  a  "monthly."  There  has  been  but  little  change  in  pro- 
cedure from  these  early  times,  and  the  modern  meetings  are 
held  in  much  the  same  manner  as  in  the  earlier  days.  In 
the  business  meetings  the  chief  functuary  is  the  "clerk"  who 
takes  the  place  of  a  "chairman,"  but  has  few  of  the  offices 
of  one,  and  may  have  one  or  more  assistants.  Business  of 
various  kinds  has  accumulated  and  the  clerk  reads  the  state- 
ments to  the  meeting,  or  presents  it  from  memory.  There 
may  be  a  prayer  preceding  it,  or  a  silent  meeting,  or  some 
Friend  feels  called  upon  to  give  a  short  sermon  on  the  duties 
of  Friends. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION  281 


It  must  be  considered  in  order,  no  vote  is  taken,  each  in- 
dividual member  has  the  right  to  express  his  opinion  on  the 
subject;  and  after  a  while  when  the  clerk  considers  that  he 
has  the  "sense  of  the  meeting"  in  hand,  he  embodies  it  in  a 
draft  minute,  which  he  reads  to  the  meeting,  embodying 
later  any  corrections  or  psuedo  amendments  which  may  be 
suggested.  The  prime  characteristic  is  that  the  "sense  of 
the  meeting,"  i.  e.,  the  opinion  of  those  present  is  obtained 
by  the  Clerk  without  a  vote. 

In  the  meeting  in  New  England,  the  clerk  obtained 
his  information  by  an  individual  expression,  members 
rising  and  saying,  "I  coincide,  or  I  am  in  sympathy 
with  concurrence;"  or  "It  is  agreeable  to  me."  This  took 
much  more  time  than  a  vote  and  rarely  did  a  majority  ex- 
press its  opinion  for  or  against;  but  time  was  not  a  factor 
in  these  meetings.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  Clerk  must  be  a 
clever  person  with  judicial  instincts,  as  he  is  called  upon  to 
embody  in  his  minute  a  decision  that  expresses  the  sentiment 
of  the  meeting  when  there  has  been  no  vote  and  no  debate. 
The  reason  of  this  and  the  absence  of  votes,  oratory,  speeches, 
applause,  or  demonstrations  of  any  kind,  is  that  while  a 
business  meeting  is  progressing,  the  element  of  sanctity  is 
always  present,  and  the  guiding  presence  of  the  Creator  is 
acknowledged  with  meekness  and  dignity.  To  quote  again 
from  Harvey:  "The  method  thus  adopted  may  perhaps  be 
slow  and  often  results  in  the  temporary  postponement  of 
some  desired  change  in  deference  to  the  strong  wish  of  a 
small  majority.  But  it  remains  a  striking  example  of  the 
fundamental  belief  of  Quakerism,  and  in  the  reality  of  the 
divine  presence  dwelling  among' st  men  and  controlling 
every  thought  and  act  of  life." 


282    THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION 


With  the  growth  and  evolution  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
in  England  came  meeting-houses,  libraries  and  various 
societies.  The  meeting-houses  of  Friends  in  England  to-day 
have  a  sentimental  and  historic  interest,  particularly  Jord- 
on's  Westminster  and  Devonshire  House  in  Bishop's  Gate 
Street,  Without.  The  latter  has  been  used  for  a  century  or 
more  as  the  headquarters  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  Eng- 
land, and  since  1794,  with  the  exception  of  1905,  and  1908, 
has  been  used  by  the  Yearly  Meeting.  Here  are  the  clerks' 
offices,  the  committee  rooms,  and  the  fine,  indeed  unrivalled 
library  of  Friends  books  and  manuscripts.  The  buildings 
stand  on  the  site  of  a  previous  meeting  house,  which  was 
destroyed  by  the  London  fire,  which  also  reduced  to  ashes 
the  first  Friends  Meeting  Place  in  London — the  Bull  and 
Mouth,  in  St.  Martins-Le-Grand,  where  the  General  Post 
Office  now  stands. 

When  they  were  burned  out  in  1666,  the  Friends  obtained 
for  temporary  use  some  rooms  in  the  residence  of  the  Earl 
of  Devonshire,  just  "without"  Bishop's  Gate;  and  here  the 
Friends  of  the  time  of  George  Fox  held  their  meetings, 
while  the  buildings  of  the  city  were  being  rebuilt,  mainly 
under  the  general  supervision  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  a 
brother-in-law  of  Dr.  Wm.  Holder.  The  meeting  house 
known  as  Bull  and  Mouth  was  replaced  and  used  up  to 
1740.  Friends  also  purchased  property  in  the  center  of  the 
city  near  Grace  Church  and  Lombard  Streets  and  established 
the  White  Hart  Court  Meeting  House;  yet  they  still  con- 
tinued to  use  the  rooms  in  Devonshire  House. 

The  original  house  was  built  by  Jasper  Fisher  who  so 
nearly  ruined  himself  in  building  it,  that  it  became  known 
as  Fisher's  Folly.    The  Earl  of  Devonshire  bought  it  from 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION  283 


him.  Here  some  of  the  earliest  yearly  meetings  in  London 
were  held.  The  original  lease  of  Devonshire  House  was 
April  3rd,  1667.  In  1678,  the  Friends  rented  a  part  of 
Devonshire  House  grounds  and  built  a  meeting  house  about 
forty  feet  square,  which  had  an  approach  from  Cavendish 
Court  by  a  lobby  which  lead  into  the  house.  It  had  various 
rooms  in  a  second  stor\'  and  others  below  which  could  be 
added  to  the  meeting.  The  furnishing  then  was  more  or 
less  crude,  and  up  to  1741  none  of  the  seats  had  backs.  In 
1  745  the  room  was  used  as  a  guard  house  for  troops,  the 
Friends  loyally  giving  it  up  (strange  to  say)  to  King 
George  who  was  threatened  by  the  Pretender.  In  1766 
the  property  was  purchased  by  Thomas  Talwin  for  seven 
hundred  pounds,  who  generously  gave  it  to  the  Society  for 
three  hundred  pounds. 

There  were  now  six  Monthly  Meetings  in  London;  others 
being  Westminster,  Peel,  Grace  Church  Street,  Ratcliff  and 
Southwark.  The  Friends  had  increased  in  number,  and 
more  room  being  needed  the  meeting  for  Sufferings  bought 
an  old  inn,  The  Dolphin,  near  Devonshire  House,  which 
was  reached  from  Bishop's  Gate  Street  and  extended  back 
to  Cavendish  Court.  Here  in  1793-4  ^^^'^  houses  were  built 
with  a  capacity  of  a  thousand  persons ;  one  for  men  and  one 
for  women.  In  later  years  this  was  added  to,  and  in  1835 
a  block  in  Cavendish  Court  and  houses  on  Devonshire  Street 
were  bought.  And  again  in  1868-1875  houses  were  bought 
in  Hounds  Ditcle  and  Bishop's  Gate.  This  gave  the 
Society  a  large  and  valuable  property  suitable  for  all  pur- 
poses. In  1866  an  Institute  was  added;  other  changes  fol- 
lowed so  that  the  premises,  so  valuable  historically,  provided 
a  home  for  many  Friends  Associations,  including  the  Friends' 


284    THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION 


Foreign  Missions  Associations,  the  Home  Mission  and  Ex- 
tension Committees,  the  First  Day  School  Association,  and 
the  Friends  Temperance  Union. 

In  all  probability  there  is  no  Friends  Meeting  House  in 
the  World  that  is  so  commodious  as  Devonshire  House,  as 
there  is  a  men's  meeting  house  which  will  seat  one  thousand 
persons,  women's  meeting,  one  thousand,  old  meeting  house, 
two  hundred  and  eighty,  library  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five,  and  seven  committee  rooms  with  sitting  room  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five.  To  this  must  be  added  the  var- 
ious retiring  rooms,  cloak  rooms,  seven  rooms  for  foreign 
missions,  three  for  the  home  mission,  a  three-room  tract 
association,  two  rooms  for  temperance  union,  two  rooms  for 
first  day  school,  and  one  room  for  the  educational  com- 
mittee, all  in  all,  well  equipped  to  carry  on  the  business  af- 
fairs of  a  great  and  influential  Society.  At  present  the 
property  includes  about  eighteen  hundred  square  yards,  ex- 
tending backward  from  Bishop's  Gate  Street  to  Hounds 
Ditch,  two  hundred  and  forty  feet.  Some  of  the  old  build- 
ings have  been  taken  down  and  their  place  occupied  by  the 
modern  Devonshire  House  Hotel  and  adjacent  business 
premises,  proving  a  good  investment  to  one  of  the  oldest 
Friends'  properties  in  London,  and  one  of  the  most  valuable 
monuments  of  the  days  gone  by. 

The  British  Museum  is  rich  in  Friends'  books,  but  the 
finest  collection  extant  is  that  in  Devonshire  House,  which 
has  been  collected  under  the  diligent  and  intelligent  direc- 
tion of  Norman  Penney.  The  inception  of  this  library  can 
be  traced  to  a  meeting  at  the  house  of  Gerard  Roberts  in 
1673,  and  since  then  the  library  has  gradually  grown  until 
it  has  become  a  treasure  house  of  literature  on  the  subject; 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ORGANIZATION  285 


maps,  old  photographs,  engravings,  mezzotints,  manu- 
scripts, folios,  diaries,  dating  back  to  the  earliest  inception 
of  the  Fox  movement.  Hundreds  have  contributed  to  this 
library,  and  the  names  of  John  Whiting,  Morris  Birbeck, 
Joseph  Smith  and  Norman  Penney  are  associated  with  its 
evolution  and  fine  arrangement  to-day,  where  one  can  count 
on  finding  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  historian,  and  a  sys- 
tem of  classification  which  appeals  to  the  student,  as  well  as 
historian.  The  Devonshire  House  Library  is  unique  in 
the  world  and  contains  forty  thousand  items,  twenty-seven 
hundred  in  print  and  thirteen  thousand  manuscripts.  This 
valuable  matter  is  preserved  in  four  strong  rooms. 

The  Friends  Institute  at  Devonshire  House  has  a  general 
library  and  a  picture  gallery  of  Friends  photographs,  old 
dwellings,  meeting  houses,  schools,  etc.  James  Boorne  of 
Cheltingham  took  a  special  interest  in  this  and  the  presence 
here  of  many  rare  pictures,  prints  and  portraits  of  Friends, 
is  due  to  his  vigilance. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  AND  INHERITANCE 
IN  ENGLAND. 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  JOHN  BRIGHT. 
Lineal  Descendant  of  Sir  John  Gratton,  Pioneer  Quaker  and  Martyr. 


While  in  London  in  1910  I  visited  the  Tower,  where  in 
the  seventeenth  century  my  Quaker  ancestors  and  kinsmen 
had  been  confined.  Coincidental  with  this,  I  attended  the 
Westminster  Meeting  where,  or  near  at  hand  in  the  old  Bull 
and  Mouth  Meeting  some  of  them — Christopher  Holder  and 
John  Ap  John  had  preached.  When  I  entered  the  meeting 
Professor  Sylvanus  Thompson,  the  distinguished  biographer 
of  Lord  Kelvin,  said,  'T  am  going  to  give  thee  John  Bright' s 
seat,  where  he  always  sat."  I  confess  that  my  thoughts 
wandered  from  the  opportunity  for  self  questioning  afforded 
by  the  impressive  silence  of  the  old  meeting-house,  and 
dwelt  on  the  great  Quaker  who  took  up  the  fight  of  George 
Fox  and  bore  his  standard  onward  in  the  Victorian  era.  I 
also  remembered  that  when  Lord  Russell  acknowledged  the 
belligerent  rights  of  the  Confederacy  that  John  Bright, 
whose  seat  I  occupied,  was  almost  the  only  man  in  England 
to  take  a  stand  for  my  country. 

John  Bright  was  the  most  notable  Friend  or  Quaker  in 
the  Victorian  period.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  a  dis- 
tinguished Englishman,  Sir  John  Grattan,  a  friend  of 
George  Fox,  previously  referred  to,  who  spent  five  years  in 


JOHX  BlUV.HT 


(Elliott  uud  Frij) 


KJya  WILLIAM  111. 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  287 


Derby  jail  in  the  time  of  Fox  for  violating  the  Conventicle 
Act  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  He  was  released  in  1686 
by  King  James,  and  his  fourth  great  grandson,  John  Bright, 
carried  on  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  a  vigorous  fight  in 
England  for  Quaker  principles.  His  biographer,  R.  Henry 
O'Brien,  says  of  him,  "He  will  live  in  the  memory  of  his 
fellow  countrymen  as  the  greatest  moral  force  which  ap- 
peared in  English  politics  during  his  generation." 

Exactly  what  would  become  of  England  as  a  world 
power  without  her  fleet  and  army,  John  Bright  never  satis- 
factorily explained  to  the  Tories;  but  the  first  Lord  Lytton 
wrote  the  clever  lines: 

"Let  Bright  responsible  for  England  be. 

And  straight  in  Bright  a  Chatham  we  should  see," 

which  suggests  what  is  probably  the  truth,  that  while  John 
Bright  was  a  Quaker  and  opposed  to  war,  he  was  first  of  all 
a  patriot  and  loyal  Englishman,  who,  like  his  ancestor's 
friend.  Fox,  was  a  century  ahead  of  his  time. 

Reformers  are  generally  hated  by  ultra  conservatives  or 
those  who  do  not  desire  a  change,  and  there  are  few  men  in 
public  life  in  England  who  have  been  better  abused  or  hated 
than  this  nineteenth  century  Quaker,  who  really  was  a  true 
patriot,  carried  away  by  his  interest  in  the  great  masses  of 
the  people  and  their  poverty.  John  Bright  entered  Parli- 
ment  in  1844  as  an  Independent  Liberal  and  Free  Trader 
against  Mr.  Purvis,  a  Tory  and  Protectionist,  and  at  once 
made  himself  felt  by  his  so-called  attacks  on  the  government. 

If  any  one  condition  had  made  an  impression  on  him,  it 
was  the  poverty  of  the  lower  classes  and  he  early  became 
their  champion.  This  found  its  chief  expression  in  the 
famous  Corn  Law  controversy.    At  the  end  of  the  Napol- 


288     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


eonic  Era  foreign  wheat  was  kept  out  of  England,  by  heavy 
duty,  which  naturally  raised  the  price  of  the  domestic  pro- 
duct. The  force  of  this  fell  upon  the  poor  consumer,  and 
Bright  believed  that  he  could  alleviate  the  terrible  poverty 
of  the  lower  classes  so  affected,  by  a  repeal  of  the  anti-Corn 
Laws  which  would  result  in  cheap  food.  The  Corn  Law 
was  passed  in  1815,  and  so  heavy  a  duty  was  placed  on 
wheat  that  the  home-grown  product  reached  eighty  shillings 
a  quarter. 

In  1822  another  act  passed  to  allow  the  importation  of 
corn,  when  the  local  price  of  wheat  reached  seventy  shill- 
ings a  quarter,  and  in  1828  a  third  act  was  passed  which  pro- 
vided a  duty  of  twenty-three  shillings  eight  pence,  when  the 
price  of  wheat  in  the  home  market  reached  fifty- 
four  shillings.  The  fight  made  by  Bright  on  this 
law,  is  the  key  to  his  character.  He  was  trying 
to  lift  a  burden  from  the  oppressed,  and  this  brought 
him  into  warfare  with  the  landed  gentry.  "This  house," 
said  Bright  in  Parliament,  "is  a  club  of  landowners,  legislat- 
ing for  landowners.  The  Corn  Law  you  cherish  is  a  law 
to  make  a  scarcity  of  food  in  the  country,  that  your  own 
rents  may  be  increased.  The  quarrel  is  betwen  the  bread- 
eating  millions  and  the  few  who  monopolize  the  soil." 
The  manifest  injustice  produced  in  Bright  a  strong  dislike 
for  the  governing  class,  and  he  soon  became  the  representa- 
tive of  the  people  in  Parliment,  and  under  all  one  may  see 
the  old  Quaker  ideas  still  being  battled  for  by  the  grandson 
of  Sir  John  Grattan,  whom  Charles  II.  imprisoned  for 
demanding  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  Quaker  prejudice  against  the  established  church  is 
shown  in  his  sarcasm  in  the  speech  against  the  Ecclesiastical 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  289 


Titles  bill  of  Lord  Russell  in  1851 :  'The  noble  lord  at 
the  head  of  the  government  said  tonight  that  he  was  strongly 
opposed  to  ecclesiastical  influence  in  temporal  affairs. 
Why,  if  we  walk  to  the  other  House,  we  see  twenty-four 
or  twenty-six  Bishops,  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  they 
always  sit  behind  the  government.  When  a  Minister 
crosses  the  House,  the  Bishops  stay  where  they  are ;  they  al- 
ways keep  on  the  Government  side.  One  of  these  bishops, 
or  rather  an  archbishop  has  an  income  of  £15,000  a  year. 
I  heard  the  noble  lord,  when  this  archbishop  was  appointed, 
state  that  an  arrangement  had  been  made  by  which  the  sal- 
ary would  be  brought  down  from  its  hitherto  unknown  and 
fabulous  amount  to  this  £15,000  a  year;  and  the  noble  lord 
said,  with  a  coolness  I  thought  inimitable,  that  he  hoped  this 
would  be  quite  satisfactory.  Not  only,  however,  here,  but 
wherever  they  travel,  these  bishops  and  archbishops  are  sur- 
rounded with  pomp  and  power.  A  bishop  was  sent  lately 
to  Jerusalem;  and  he  did  not  travel  like  an  ordinary  man — 
he  had  a  steam  frigate  to  himself,  called  the  Devastation. 
And  when  he  arrived  within  a  stone's  throw,  no  doubt,  of 
the  house  where  an  apostle  lived,  in  the  house  of  Simon  the 
tanner,  he  landed  under  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns." 

Bright  was  continually  attacking  the  aristocracy;  but  it 
was  because  he  considered  them  responsible  for  the  poverty 
that  cursed  England.  His  critic,  even  his  biographer,  states 
in  unequivocable  language  that  he  hated  the  aristocracy,  but 
there  was  no  such  word  as  hate  in  the  vocabulary  of  John 
Bright,  the  Quaker.  He  looked  upon  the  institution  of 
aristocracy  as  a  menace  to  the  nation,  and  he  doubtless  be- 
lieved that  if  England  ever  became  decadent,  the  initial  and 
19 


290     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


major  symptom  would  be  discovered  at  this  end  of  the 
Kingdom. 

Pure  of  heart,  honorable,  conscientious  to  the  limit,  with 
all  the  Quaker  inheritance  of  two  centuries  entrenched  in  his 
heart  and  soul,  he  could  not  do  otherwise  than  stand  for  the 
honor  of  his  country  along  the  lines  of  the  greatest  resist- 
ance. Few  men  have  had  more  verbal  abuse,  even  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  than  John  Bright.  If  he  had  lived  in 
1650,  he  would  have  been  jailed  and  perhaps  beheaded  for 
treason  by  the  clever  Tories  of  the  time,  or  in  Boston  he 
might  have  had  his  tongue  burned  with  a  red-hot  iron,  or 
have  lost  an  ear,  after  the  fashion  of  Christopher  Holder,  a 
friend  of  Sir  John  Grattan,  his  forebear. 

John  Bright  had  no  hatred  for  the  established  church  or 
its  Bishops.  He  merely  considered  it  an  obsolete  append- 
age to  the  greatest  world  power,  as  he  held  England  to  be; 
and  his  reasons  were  that  he  did  not  believe  that  the  Bishops 
or  the  established  church  did  its  whole  duty  as  a  moral  force. 
If  there  was  such  a  thing  as  reincarnation,  which  there  is 
not  in  the  minds  of  the  sane  and  well-balanced  public, 
John  Bright  was  the  reincarnation  in  the  nineteenth  century 
of  George  Fox.  Bright' s  attitude  to  the  church,  expressing 
his  opinion  as  regards  its  usefulness,  is  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  his  famous  Liverpool  address  to  Welshmen 
in  1868: 

"For  the  last  two  hundred  years,  up  to  the  end  of  the 
great  war  with  France,  this  country  was  almost  constantly 
engaged  in  war.  I  never  knew  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
of  the  church  of  England  to  meet  to  promote  peace  and  con- 
demn war.  When  the  great  question  of  slavery  agitated 
the  country,  though  there  were  some  of  them  that  gave  their 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  291 


support  to  the  right  side  on  that  question,  there  was  no  com- 
bined and  unanimous  movement  in  regard  to  it.  When 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  we  met,  probably  in  this  very 
building,  to  denounce  one  of  the  greatest  iniquities  that  ever 
assumed  the  form  of  law — the  Corn  Law — the  archbishops 
and  bishops  never  for  one  moment  deemed  it  their  duty  to 
express  an  opinion  upon  the  question  or,  so  far  as  we  know, 
to  give  it  five  minutes'  examination.  I  have  never  known 
them  in  England  or  Ireland,  in  the  most  calamitous  days  of 
our  modern  history,  I  have  never  known  them  come  forward 
in  any  combined  manner  to  expose  the  sufferings  and  de- 
nounce the  wrongs  which  were  practised  upon  their  poorer 
countrymen." 

He  objected  to  the  aristocracy  in  an  economic  sense,  but 
he  believed  that  the  millions  of  citizens  of  Great  Britian 
have  rights  which  the  aristocracy  and  great  land  owners  did 
not  justly  consider.  If  he  had  lived  to-day  he  would  not 
have  been  found  with  the  men  who  wish  to  wipe  out  the 
House  of  Lords,  but  he  would  have  been  a  protagonist  of 
the  ethical  principle  that  if  members  of  the  House  of  Lords 
were  incompetent,  if  the  Bishops  never  attended,  if  the  ab- 
sentee list  was  a  menace,  that  the  House  should  be  reformed 
a  position  that  no  Englishman  of  sense  and  good  judg- 
ment is  opposed  to,  in  the  twentieth  century.  It  was 
charged  that  Bright  would  have  swept  the  House  of  Lords 
out  of  existence,  but  this  is  not  so.  His  attitude  is  illustrated 
by  the  following  incident. 

One  day  he  was  drinking  tea  with  Lady  Stanley,  who 
asked  him  the  direct  question,  ''What  do  we  want  with  a 
House  of  Lords'?"  He  made  no  reply  and  again  the  ques- 
tion was  put  with  woman's  determination.     The  great 


292     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


Tribune  was  fingering  his  cup  and  turned  the  hot  beverage 
into  the  saucer  to  cool,  a  solecism  that  would  have  lost  him 
the  suffragette  Tory  vote  very  likely,  had  it  been  alive.  He 
tapped  the  saucer  of  smoking  tea  and  said,  "This  is  the 
House  of  Lords.''  He  meant  that  it  was  a  cooler  for  the 
Commons,  a  needed  check,  as  the  American  Senate  is  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  a  necessity.  He  was  a 
master  of  cynical  and  subtle  sarcasm.  His  contempt  was  of 
the  withering,  scorching  variety,  to  which  there  was  no 
reply.  He  was  a  real  servant  of  all  the  people,  their  repre- 
sentative in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  remain  silent,  when  he  believed  that  the  business 
of  the  kingdom  was  being  badly  managed. 

In  appearance  John  Bright  was  a  splendid  specimen  of 
an  Englishman,  a  type  of  the  best  that  the  evolution  of 
humanity  had  done  for  the  Caucasian  race.  His  face,  called 
homely  by  some,  with  its  aureola  of  white,  set  off  by  the 
leonine  mass  of  hair,  expressed  the  noble  sentiments  which 
actuated  all  his  thoughts  and  actions.  Benignity,  dignity 
and  nobility  of  character  shone  from  his  eyes.  O'Brien 
thus  described  his  appearance  in  the  House  of  Commons: 
"Immediately  on  the  left  of  Gladstone,  so  far  as  I  can  now 
recall,  was  John  Bright.  His  splendid  leonine  head  was,  I 
thought,  the  noblest  object  in  the  House  of  Commons  that 
night.  He  was  stately  and  dignified.  He  sat  upright  and 
looked  straight  in  front  of  him.  The  lines  of  the  mouth 
were  drawn  down,  and  the  expression  was  earnest,  defiant, 
severe,  with  a  touch  of  contempt  and  scorn  when  Tory 
cheers  greeted  the  belligerent  periods  of  the  fiery  Hardy. 
During  Hardy's  speech  Bright  looked,  in  the  main,  uncon- 
cerned.   Sometimes  the  arms  were  folded,  sometimes  the 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  293 

elbow  of  the  right  arm  rested  in  the  palm  of  the  left  hand 
and  the  uplifted  fingers  stroked  the  chin.  Mr.  Gladstone 
turned  to  him  now  and  then,  but  without,  so  far  as  I  could 
see,  eliciting  much  response." 

To  understand  John  Bright's  career  and  the  hostility  of 
the  aristocracy,  it  must  be  remembered  that  John  Bright  was 
not  an  ambitious  politician.  He  never  sought  official  hon- 
ors, and  all  the  places  of  honor  he  filled  were  thrust  or 
forced  upon  him  by  the  arguments  of  those  who,  even  if 
they  opposed  him,  saw  in  him  a  great,  true  and  valuable 
citizen,  whose  counsel  the  kingdom  could  not  afford  to  lose. 

He  was  not  understood  by  the  aristocracy;  was  supposed 
to  be  gruff,  even  coarse ;  and  the  fact  that  he  considered  him- 
self a  representative  of  the  people,  of  the  masses,  brought 
upon  him  the  charge  of  not  being  a  "gentleman."  The 
truth  is  that  John  Bright  was  one  of  the  most  cultivated 
and  best-read  gentlemen  in  England ;  but  he  was  a  Quaker, 
hence  he  had  very  simple  habits,  disdained  the  extreme 
social  customs,  and  had  an  inherent  disregard  for  fashion. 
He  honestly  believed  that  in  the  sight  of  God  the  humblest 
worker  in  England's  mines  had  the  same  right  to  live  and 
enjoy  life  as  the  king.   Lord  Eversley"^  says  of  him : 

"I  have  always  looked  back  at  my  association  in  1869-70 
with  Mr.  Bright  at  the  Board  of  Trade,  when  he  was  Presi- 
dent and  I  was  Parliamentary  Secretary,  with  the  greatest 
pleasure,  and  with  a  strong  personal  affection  for  him.  He 
told  me  when  we  first  met  at  the  office  that  I  must  do  most 
of  the  work  and  only  bring  before  him  the  more  important 

*I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  O'Brien  for  permission  to  quote  this  extract 
which  Mr.  OBrien  writes  me  was  written  by  Lord  Eversley  for  Mr. 
O'Brien's  life  of  John  Bright. 


294     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


questions.  He  had  no  experience  of  official  work,  and  I 
gathered  that  he  had  not  taken  much  part  in  the  business  of 
the  manufacturing  of  which  he  was  a  partner.  At  the  age 
of  fifty-seven  it  was  rather  late  in  life  to  begin  work  at  the 
head  of  a  great  Government  department.  He  had  a  great 
distaste,  and  almost  an  incapacity,  for  wading  through  a 
bundle  of  official  papers.  It  was  said  in  the  office  that  he 
did  not  know  how  to  untie  the  tape  that  held  them  together. 
I  don't  think  he  often  did  this.  I  don't  recollect  his  ever 
writing  a  minute  on  them.  He  liked  me  to  state  the  case 
to  him,  and  he  would  then  discuss  it  fully  and  with  practical 
common-sense.  What  he  said  was  always  of  the  greatest 
value,  and  his  conclusions  were  sound  and  wise.  Some- 
times, however,  before  deciding  he  would  go  down  to  the 
House  of  Commons  and  discuss  the  matter  with  some  friend 
in  the  smoking  room  there,  and  it  was  difficult  then  to  meet 
the  arguments  or  objections  of  this  unknown  person. 

I  recollect  that  in  the  very  first  case  Mr.  Bright  had  to 
deal  with  at  the  Board  of  Trade,  a  deputation  came  before 
him  from  the  Elder  Brethren  of  the  Trinity  House,  asking 
for  some  amendment  of  their  charter.  Mr.  Bright  asked 
me,  before  receiving  them,  what  I  knew  about  them.  I 
told  him  that  they  were  an  old  corporation,  in  whom,  from 
time  immemorial,  the  administration  of  the  light-house  had 
been  vested,  subject  in  recent  years  to  their  control  of  ex- 
penditure by  the  Board  of  Trade ;  no  one,  I  said,  would  think 
of  creating  such  a  body  nowadays,  but  that,  as  they  did  then 
work  fairly  well,  there  was  no  present  reason  for  disestab- 
lishing them. 

In  the  course  of  his  reply  to  the  deputation  Mr.  Bright, 
pointing  to  me,  said,  'You  see  that  Radical  chap  there;  he 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  295 


would  sweep  you  into  the  sea  if  he  could.'  He  then  presented 
himself  to  them  as  the  more  conservative  statesman,  and 
ended  by  conceding  what  they  wanted.  It  amused  me 
much  to  be  called  a  "Radical  chap"  by  Mr.  Bright  as  com- 
pared with  himself ;  but  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  truth 
in  the  comparison, for  in  details  of  administrations  and  in 
proposals  for  legislation  Mr.  Bright  was  distinctly  conserva- 
tive, far  more  so  than  I  was.  He  objected  to  interference 
or  legislation  if  it  could  possibly  be  avoided.  He  got  into 
trouble  with  the  Press  for  a  speech  he  made  in  the  House  of 
Commons  objecting  to  a  bill  which  aimed  at  giving  greater 
protection  against  adulteration. 

Mr.  Bright  was  an  exceedingly  pleasant  chief  to  work 
under,  showing  the  fullest  confidence  and  consideration. 
He  not  infrequently  deferred  to  my  views,  even  when  disa- 
greeing with  them.  In  one  important  question,  where  the 
Board  of  Trade  had  been  asked  by  the  Foreign  Office  for  an 
opinion  as  to  the  instructions  to  be  given  to  our  Minister  in 
Pekin  on  a  negotiation  for  a  commercial  treaty,  after  dis- 
cussing the  matter  with  me,  Mr.  Bright  said,  'Well,  you 
have  given  great  attention  to  the  subject  and  I  very  little,  so 
the  letter  had  better  go  to  the  Foreign  Office  as  you  propose, 
though  I  quite  disagree.'    And  so  it  went. 

Later,  Lord  Clarendon  who  was  then  Foreign  Secretary, 
sent  for  me  to  discuss  the  same  question  with  him.  Cur- 
iously enough  he  ended  the  discussion  almost  in  the  same 
words  as  Mr.  Bright  had  done,  and  instructions  were  sent  to 
the  Minister  in  China  in  the  terms  I  proposed,  though  both 
Mr.  Bright  and  Lord  Clarendon  disagreed.  I  should  add 
that  my  opinion  had  been  formed  after  consultation  with 
Lord  Farrer  and  Sir  Lewis  Malet  ,then  officials  at  the  Board 
of  Trade, 


296     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


Mr.  Bright  struck  me  as  a  very  good  judge  of  men.  The 
only  important  post  at  the  Board  of  Trade  which  fell 
vacant  while  he  was  in  office  there  was  that  of  the  head  of 
the  Railway  Department.  There  were  a  great  many  appli- 
cants for  it.  Mr.  Bright  took  much  trouble  in  personally 
seeing  many  of  them.  He  picked  out  from  them  a  young 
lawyer,  Mr.  William  Malcolm,  who  came  of  a  well-known 
Tory  stock.  The  appointment  turned  out  a  most  excellent 
one  in  every  respect.  After  some  years  of  work  at  the 
Board  of  Trade  Mr.  Malcolm  was  transferred  to  the  Colon- 
ial Office,  and  later  was  tempted  to  leave  the  Government 
service  by  an  offer  of  partnership  in  Messrs.  Coutts'  Bank. 

Mr.  Bright  often  discussed  Mr.  Gladstone  with  me.  He 
had  the  most  profound  admiration  for  his  chief,  and  was 
astounded  at  his  power  of  work.  He  could  not  have  be- 
lieved it  was  possible  for  any  human  being  to  get  through 
so  much.  He  said  that  Mr.  Gladstone  had  a  passion  for 
work,  and  revelled  in  it  for  its  own  sake.  Of  himself,  he 
said  that  he  had  no  such  power  or  liking  for  work.  The 
only  pleasant  thing  about  office,  he  humorously  added,  was 
receiving  the  salary.  He  gave  great  support  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone in  the  Cabinet.  I  feel  certain  that  Mr.  Gladstone  had 
the  greatest  confidence  in  him,  and  appreciated  his  sound 
counsel.  When  Mr.  Bright,  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  second 
administration,  resigned  his  post  on  account  of  the  military 
operations  in  Egypt,  from  something  he  said  to  me  I 
thought  he  was  rather  hurt  to  find  how  little  disturbed  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  at  losing  him  for  a  colleague.  I  made  the 
observation  that  resignations  of  colleagues  were  to  Mr. 
Gladstone  a  part  of  his  everyday  work. 

I  was  confirmed  in  this  view  of  Mr.  Gladstone  later,  in 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  297 


1884,  when  I  was  a  member  of  his  cabinet.  The  period 
was  one  of  great  internal  differences  in  the  Government,  and 
at  several  successive  Cabinets  resignations  were  tendered,  and 
were  only  withdrawn  after  great  difficulties.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone dealt  with  these  cases  with  imperturbable  temper  and 
calmness,  as  part  of  the  business  of  the  day.  I  recollect 
that  in  coming  out  of  a  Cabinet,  after  one  of  these  scenes, 
he  made  the  jocular  observation  to  me  that  'his  colleagues 
seemed  to  be  all  going  off  at  half-cock.' 

Mr.  Bright  spent  much  labour  in  preparing  his  speeches. 
His  speech  in  1869,  on  the  Bill  for  disestablishing  the  Irish 
Church  was  one  of  the  best  he  ever  made.  It  was  the  sub- 
ject of  long  thought  and  preparation.  His  great  efforts 
were  perhaps  conceived  in  a  loftier  strain  than  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's, but  he  did  not  compare  in  general  effectiveness — in 
power  of  debate — in  all  the  use  of  rhetorical  and  dialectical 
methods.  His  impromptu  speeches  were  rare,  but  they 
were  not  wanting  in  spirit  and  power.  He  gave  much  time 
to  reading  poetry.  He  often  copied  out  lines  which  pleased 
him,  and  carried  them  about  in  his  pocket  for  the  purpose 
of  committing  them  to  memory.  I  thought  his  massive 
head  a  very  noble  one,  and  his  expression  refined  and  beauti- 
ful— totally  different  from  the  version  given  of  him  in 
Pujich — which  always  depicted  him  as  a  coarse  and  almost 
brutal  demagogue.  It  was  in  this  sense  he  was  regarded  for 
many  years  by  the  Tory  party.  It  was  only  quite  late  in  his 
life  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  impression  changed, 
and  that  even  his  opponents  recognized  his  noble  simplicity 
and  refinement." 

John  Bright's  love  of  justice  was  overwhelming. 
It   was    his    Quaker    inheritance   and   this  naturally 


298     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


gave  him  a  contempt  for  shams  and  a  desire  to  fight  them 
down.  His  biographer,  Mr.  O'Brien  ,says:  "John  Bright 
was,  above  all  things,  a  domestic  man.  He  loved  home  life. 
He  said  of  himself  that  it  was  only  the  strongest  sense  of 
duty  which  induced  him  to  take  part  in  public  affairs.  He 
was  not  ambitious ;  he  cared  little  for  fame  and  glory.  But 
forces  which  he  could  not  control  impelled  him  to  become 
a  great  figure  in  the  State.  A  love  of  justice  was  born  in 
him;  sympathy  with  the  oppressed  was  the  very  essence  of 
his  being;  and  a  gift  of  oratory,  as  rare  as  was  ever  bestowed 
upon  any  man  of  ancient  or  modern  times,  was  his  special 
endowment.  Morally  and  intellectually  strong,  he  was 
called  to  do  battle  for  the  cause  of  righteousness,  in  his  own 
country  and  in  other  lands,  and  he  responded  to  the  call. 
But  had  he  followed  the  bent  of  his  own  inclination,  he 
would  have  abided  among  his  own  people,  enjoying  the 
companionship  of  friends,  books,  and  family,  doing  good 
wherever  he  went  by  his  influence  and  example,  by  living 
far  from  the  heat  and  tumult  and  worry  of  political  strife." 

While  Punch,  and  the  Tory  press  satirized  him  grossly, 
and  his  enemies  laughed  him  to  scorn  when  they  could,  the 
real  men  of  England  never  failed  to  appreciate  him  and  his 
greatness  of  character.  Lord  Granville  refers  to  his  visit 
to  Queen  Victoria  in  a  letter  to  Gladstone:  "Bright  evi- 
dently touched  some  feminine  chord,  for  she  was  much 
touched  with  him,  and  saw  him  again  the  next  morning. 
Without  unnecessary  depreciation  of  our  enemies,  it  is 
probable  that  she  is  not  insensible  to  the  charm  of  sincerity 
and  earnestness." 

We  then  retired  to  the  Household  at  tea,  and  Bright  was 
by  no  means  dashed  when  Alfred  Paget  addressed  the  com- 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  299 


pany  as  if  through  a  speaking  trumpet,  "Well,  I  never  ex- 
pected to  see  John  Bright  here."  Lord  Granville  in  the 
same  letter  compared  Bright  to  some  one  whose  name  is 

omitted.  Could  it  have  been  The  quotation  is 

as  follows:    "  came  in.    Nothing  could  be  more 

striking  than  the  contrast  between  the  two  men.  Both  a 
little  vain,  and  with  good  reason  to  be  so ;  but  one  so  guile- 
less in  his  allusions  to  himself,  and  the  other  showing  it  en- 
veloped with  little  artifices  and  mock  humility;  one  so  in- 
trinsically a  gentleman,  and  so  ignorant  of  our  particular 
society,  the  other  a  little  vulgar,  but  a  consummate  master 
of  the  ways  of  the  grande  mondeJ" 

In  reference  to  John  Bright  as  a  politician.  Lord  Fitz- 
maurice  says  in  his  life  of  Lord  Granville:  "His  accept- 
ance of  office  was  perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  in  the 
new  arrangements.  It  was  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of 
the  definite  junction  between  the  more  advanced  section  of 
the  old  Liberal  Party  and  the  Radicalism  of  the  school  of 
Mr.  Cobden.  The  Tadpoles  and  Tapers  of  London  Tory- 
ism went  about  asserting  that  none  of  the  "gentlemen"  of  the 
Liberal  Party  would  associate  with  the  great  Tribune  of 
Birmingham,  and  Lord  Derby  was  freely  quoted  by  them, 
though  without  any  kind  of  authority,  as  having  said  that 
the  Queen  would  never  receive  Mr.  Bright  as  a  Minister. 
Lord  Granville  marked  his  opinion  by  walking  down  Parlia- 
ment Street  from  the  Cabinet,  arm  in  arm  with  the  new 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  to  the  House  on  the  day  of 
the  Meeting  of  Parliament,  and  he  piloted  the  new  Minister 
on  his  first  journey  to  Osborne." 

John  Bright's  Quaker  ancestry  and  views  shaped  his  en- 
tire public  career.   He  opposed  war  consistently  but  he  did 


300     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


not  treat  if  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Peace  Society,  but 
rather  from  the  statesman's  point  of  vitw.  He  disclaimed 
being  the  original  protagonist  of  a  policy  of  peace,  and  re- 
ferred to  Peel,  Walpole,  Fox  and  others  as  Englishmen  who 
had  resented  the  interference  of  Great  Britian  in  foreign  af- 
fairs. One  day  in  walking  by  the  Waterloo  monument  on 
which  was  the  word  Crimea,  he  remarked  to  his  companion, 
"the  last  letter  of  that  word  should  be  placed  first."  In  his 
great  speech  on  the  Crimea  in  which  he  also  defines  the  am- 
bitions of  his  life,  he  said,  "I  am  not,  nor  did  I  ever  pretend 
to  be,  a  statesman;  as  that  character  is  so  tainted  and  so 
equivocal  in  our  day,  that  I  am  not  sure  that  a  pure  and 
honourable  ambition  would  aspire  to  it.  I  have  not  en? 
joyed  for  thirty  years,  like  these  noble  lords,  the  honours 
and  emoluments  of  office.  I  have  not  set  my  sails  to  every 
passing  breeze.''  And  now  speaks  the  Quaker,  "I  am  a 
plain  and  simple  citizen,  sent  here  by  one  of  the  foremost 
constituencies  of  the  Empire,  representing  feebly,  perhaps, 
but  honestly,  I  dare  aver,  the  opinions  of  very  many,  and 
the  true  interests  of  all  those  who  have  sent  me  here.  Let 
it  not  he  said  that  I  am  alone  in  my  condemnation  of  this 
war^  and  of  this  incapable  and  guilty  administration.  And, 
even  if  I  were  alone,  if  mine  were  a  solitary  voice,  raised 
amid  the  din  of  arms,  and  the  clamours  of  a  venal  Press,  I 
should  have  the  consolation  I  have  tonight — and  which  I 
trust  will  he  mine  to  the  last  moment  of  my  existence — the 
priceless  consolation  that  no  word  of  mine  has  tended  to 
promote  the  squandering  of  my  country's  treasure  or  the 
spilling  of  one  single  drop  of  my  country's  blood.''' 

In  his  Birmingham  speech  of  1853,  he  said,  "If  you  turn 
to  the  history  of  England,  from  the  period  of  the  Revolu- 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  301 


tion  to  the  present,  you  will  find  that  an  entirely  new  policy 
was  adopted,  and  that,  while  we  have  endeavored  in  former 
times  to  keep  ourselves  free  from  European  complications, 
we  now  began  to  act  upon  a  system  of  constant  entangle- 
ment in  the  affairs  of  foreign  countries,  as  if  there  was 
neither  property  nor  honours,  nor  anything  worth  striving 
for,  to  be  acquired  in  any  other  field.  The  language  coin- 
ed and  used  then  has  continued  to  our  day.  Lord  Somers, 
in  writing  for  Williarn  III.,  speaks  of  the  endless  and  san- 
guinary wars  of  that  period  as  wars  'to  maintain  the  liberties 
of  Europe.'  There  were  wars  'to  support  the  Protestant 
interest,'  and  there  were  many  wars  to  preserve  our  old 
friend  'the  balance  of  power.' 

We  have  been  at  war  since  that  time,  I  believe,  with, 
for,  and  against,  every  considerable  nation  in  Europe.  We 
fought  to  put  down  a  pretended  French  supremacy  under 
Louis  XIV.  We  fought  to  prevent  France  and  Spain  com- 
ing under  the  sceptre  of  one  monarch,  although,  if  we  had 
not  fought,  it  would  have  been  impossible  in  the  course  of 
things  that  they  should  have  become  so  united.  We  fought 
to  maintain  the  Italian  provinces  in  connection  with  the 
House  of  Austria.  We  fought  to  put  down  the  supremacy 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte ;  and  the  Minister  who  was  employed 
by  this  country  at  V^ienna,  after  the  great  war,  when  it 
was  determined  that  no  Bonaparte  should  ever  again  sit  on 
the  throne  of  France,  was  the  very  man  to  make  an  alliance 
with  another  Bonaparte  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  a 
war  to  prevent  the  supremacy  of  the  late  Emperor  of  Rus- 
sia. So  that  we  have  been  all  round  Europe,  and  across  it 
over  and  over  again,  and  after  a  policy  so  distinguished,  so 
long  continued,  and  so  costly,  I  think  we  have  a  fair  right — 


302     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


I  have,  at  last — to  ask  those  who  are  in  favour  of  it  to  show 
us  its  visible  result." 

Then  he  held  up  to  his  amazed  listeners  the  bill  wrung 
from  the  people:  "I  believe  that  I  understate  the  sum  when 
I  say  that,  in  pursuit  of  this  will-o'-the-wisp  (the  liberties 
of  Europe  and  the  balance  of  power),  there  has  been  ex- 
tracted from  the  industry  of  the  people  of  this  small  island 
no  less  an  amount  than  £2,000,000,000  sterling  (ten  mil- 
lion dollars).  I  cannot  imagine  how  much  £2,000,000,000 
is,  and  therefore  I  shall  not  attempt  to  make  you  compre- 
hend it.  I  presume  it  is  something  like  those  vast  and  in- 
comprehensible astronomical  distances  with  which  we  have 
lately  been  made  familiar;  but,  however  familiar,  we  feel 
that  we  do  not  know  one  bit  more  about  them  than  we  did 
before.  When  I  try  to  think  of  that  sum  of  £2,000,000,- 
000  there  is  a  sort  of  vision  passes  before  my  mind's  eye.  I 
see  your  peasant  labourer  delve  and  plough,  sow  and  reap, 
sweat  beneath  the  summer's  sun,  or  grow  prematurely  old 
before  the  winter's  blast.  I  see  your  noble  mechanic,  with 
his  manly  countenance  and  his  matchless  skill,  toiling  at  his 
bench  or  his  forge.  I  see  one  of  the  workers  in  our  factories 
in  the  north,  a  woman,  a  girl  it  may  be — gentle  and  good, 
as  many  of  them  are,  as  your  sisters  and  daughters  are, — I 
see  her  intent  upon  the  spindle,  whose  revolutions  are  so 
rapid  that  the  eye  fails  altogether  to  detect  them,  or  watch- 
ing the  alternating  flight  of  the  unresting  shuttle.  I  turn 
again  to  another  portion  of  your  population,  which,  "plunged 
in  mines,  forgets  a  sun  was  made,'  and  I  see  the  man  who 
brings  up  from  the  secret  chambers  of  the  earth  the  elements 
of  the  riches  and  greatness  of  his  country.  When  I  see  all 
this  I  have  before  me  a  mass  of  produce  and  of  wealth  which 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  303 


I  am  no  more  able  to  comprehend  than  I  am  that  £2,000,- 
000,000  of  which  I  have  spoken,  but  I  behold  in  its  full 
proportions  the  hideous  error  of  your  Governments,  whose 
fatal  policy  consumes  in  some  cases  a  half,  never  less  than  a 
third,  of  all  the  results  of  that  industry  which  God  intended 
should  fertilize  and  bless  every  home  in  England,  but  the 
fruits  of  which  are  squandered  in  every  part  of  the  surface 
of  the  globe,  without  producing  the  smallest  good  to  the 
people  of  England." 

Then  he  asked,  who  is  benefited  by  the  policy"? 

"Mr.  Kingslake,  the  author  of  an  interesting  book  on 
eastern  travel,  describing  the  habits  of  some  acquaintances 
that  he  made  in  the  Syrian  deserts,  says  that  the  jackals  of 
the  desert  follow  their  prey  in  families,  like  the  place-hunt- 
ers of  Europe.  I  will  reverse,  if  you  like,  the  comparison, 
and  say  that  the  great  territorial  families  of  England,  which 
were  enthroned  at  the  Revolution,  have  followed  their  prey 
like  the  jackals  of  the  desert.  Do  you  not  observe  at  a 
glance  that  from  the  time  of  William  III.,  by  reason  of  the 
foreign  policy  which  1  denounce,  wars  have  been  multi- 
plied, taxes  increased,  loans  made,  and  the  sums  of  money 
which  every  year  the  Government  has  to  expend  augmented; 
and  that  so  the  patronage  at  the  disposal  of  Ministers 
must  have  increased  also,  and  the  families  who  were  en- 
throned and  made  powerful  in  the  legislation  and  adminis- 
tration of  the  country  must  have  had  the  first  pull  at,  and 
the  largest  profit  out  of,  that  patronage?  There  is  no  act- 
uary in  existence  who  can  calculate  how  much  of  the  wealth, 
of  the  strength,  of  the  supremacy  of  the  territorial  families 
of  England  has  been  derived  from  an  unholy  participation 
in  the  fruits  of  the  industry  of  the  people,  which  have  been 


304     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


wrested  from  them  by  every  device  of  taxation  and  squand- 
ered in  every  conceivable  crime  of  w^hich  a  Government 
could  possibly  be  guilty. 

The  more  you  examine  this  matter  the  more  you  will 
come  to  the  conclusion  which  I  have  arrived  at — that  this 
foreign  policy,  this  regard  for  'the  liberties  of  Europe,'  this 
care  at  one  time  for  'the  Protestant  interests,'  this  excessive 
love  for  'the  balance  of  power,'  is  neither  more  nor  less  than 
a  gigantic  system  of  outdoor  relief  for  the  aristocracy  of 
Great  Britain." 

John  Bright's  Quaker  instinct  led  him  to  devote  himself 
to  the  moral  upbuilding  of  the  nation  and  to  reform,  hence 
we  see  him  devoting  himself  to  such  subjects  as  Ireland, 
Free  Trade,  India,  the  Crimean  War,  Parliamentary  Re- 
form, Public  Expenditures.  In  the  American  Congress  there 
have  been  certain  men  dubbed  "the  watch  dogs  of  the  Treas- 
ury." John  Bright  was  one  of  these  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  he  was  continually  aware  that  he  was  the  steward  and 
was  always  ready  to  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship. 

Bright  made  a  fight  for  the  common  people  against  the 
Corn  Law  which  has  become  historic.  With  Cobden,  he 
gradually  convinced  the  people.  It  took  them  seven  years 
to  make  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  John  Russell  free  traders, 
and  the  story  is  well  told  in  the  Letters  of  Queen  Victoria. 

They  converted  the  "Times,"  which,  as  the  Prince  Con- 
sort says,  "became  suddenly,  violently  anti-Corn  Law." 
The  Peel  ministry  was  amazed  by  the  sudden  surrender  of 
Lord  John  Russell;  all  England  was  convulsed.  The  Peel 
cabinet  was  demoralized,  and  we  see  the  spectacle  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  Lord  Russell,  and  others  suspicious 
and  antagonistic.    The  intensity  of  the  feeling  may  be 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  305 


shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Duke  of  Beaufort  wrote  a  letter, 
which  Lord  Granville  says  was  doubtless  dictated  by  Alvan- 
ley,  in  which  the  sentence  appears,  "Peel  ought  not  die  a 
natural  death."  This  in  1845-6.  In  this  war,  the  Quaker 
had  the  friendship  and  influence  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  in 
1846,  Peel  again  took  offi.ce  and  the  Corn  law  was  repealed, 
and  a  sliding  scale  adopted  for  three  years.  Peel,  the  prime 
minister,  was  denounced  by  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  Wel- 
lington, Beaufort  and  other  Tory  leaders  for  betraying  the 
party. 

John  Bright,  the  Quaker,  had  again  won  a  great  moral 
victory  for  the  people,  and  his  defense  of  Peel  must  have 
been  a  solace  to  that  distinguished  statesman.  "You  say 
the  right  hon.  baronet  is  a  traitor.  It  would  ill  become  me 
to  attempt  his  defense  after  the  speech  which  he  delivererd 
last  night — a  speech,  I  will  venture  to  say,  more  powerful 
and  more  to  be  admired  than  any  speech  which  has  been  de- 
livered within  the  memory  of  any  man  in  this  House.  I 
watched  the  right  hon.  baronet  as  he  went  home  last  night, 
and  for  the  first  time  I  envied  him  his  feelings.  That 
speech  has  circulated  by  scores  of  thousands  throughout  the 
kingdom  and  throughout  the  world;  and  wherever  a  man  is 
to  be  found  who  loves  justice,  and  wherever  there  is  a  lab- 
ourer whom  you  have  trampled  under  foot,  that  speech  will 
bring  joy  to  the  heart  of  the  one  and  hope  to  the  breast  of 
another.  You  chose  the  right  hon.  baronet — why*?  Be- 
cause he  was  the  ablest  man  of  your  party.  You  always 
said  so,  and  you  will  not  deny  it  now.  Why  was  he  the 
ablest  *?  Because  he  had  great  experience,  profound  at- 
tainments, and  an  honest  regard  for  the  good  of  the  country. 
You  placed  him  in  office.  When  a  man  is  in  office  he  is  not 
20 


3o6     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


the  same  man  as  when  in  opposition.  The  present  posterity 
or  generation  does  not  deal  as  mildly  with  men  in  Govern- 
ment as  with  those  in  Opposition.  There  are  such  things  as 
the  responsibilities  of  office.  Look  at  the  population  of 
Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  and  there  is  not  a  man  among 
you  who  would  have  the  valour  to  take  office  and  raise  the 
standard  of  Protection,  and  cry,  'down  with  the  Anti-Corn 
Law  League  and  Protection  forever  I'  There  is  not  a  man 
in  your  ranks  who  would  dare  to  sit  on  that  bench  as  the 
Prime  Minister  of  England  pledged  to  maintain  the  exist- 
ing law.  The  right  hon.  baronet  took  the  only,  the  truest 
course — he  resigned.  He  told  you  by  that  act,  T  will  no 
longer  do  your  work;  I  will  not  defend  your  cause.  The 
experience  I  have  had  since  I  came  into  office  renders  it  im- 
possible for  me  at  once  to  maintain  office  and  the  Corn 
Law.'  The  right  hon.  baronet  resigned — he  was  then  no 
longer  your  Minister.  He  came  back  to  office  as  the  Min- 
ister of  his  sovereign  and  of  the  people." 

Whether  Cobden  or  Bright  was  the  most  potent  figure  in 
producing  this  great  reform  the  reader  of  history  must  de- 
cide, but  there  was  no  question  in  the  mind  of  John  Bright. 
His  fine  Quaker  modesty  came  to  the  front,  for  when  he  ap- 
pealed to  Cobden  not  to  resign,  he  said,  "I  am  of  opinion 
that  your  retirement  would  be  tantamount  to  a  dissolution 
of  the  League;  its  mainspring  would  be  gone.  I  can  in  no 
degree  take  your  place.  As  a  second  I  can  fight;  but  there 
are  incapacities  about  me,  of  which  I  am  fully  conscious, 
which  prevent  my  being  more  than  a  second  in  such  work 
as  we  have  laboured  in." 

Disraeli  in  1844  thus  cleverly  defined  the  Irish  Question: 
"The  Irish,  in  extreme  distress,  inhabit  an  island  where 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  307 


there  is  an  established  Church  which  is  not  their  Church, 
and  a  territorial  aristocracy  the  richest  of  whom  live  in  for- 
eign capitals.  Thus  you  have  a  starving  population,  an  ab- 
sentee aristocracy,  and  an  alien  Church ;  and  in  addition  the 
weakest  executive  in  the  world.  That  is  the  Irish  Ques- 
tion." John  Bright  became  the  champion  of  the  down- 
pressed  of  Ireland.  He  said,  "I  am  reading  about  Ireland 
and  thinking  about  her  almost  continually,  and  am  quite 
clear  as  to  what  is  required  for  her ;  but  our  aristocratic  Gov- 
ernment will  see  the  people  perish  by  thousands  rather  than 
yield  anything  of  their  privileges  and  usurpations." 

In  1884  when  John  Bright  was  discussing  Ireland,  he 
said  "But  if  the  ancient  lines  are  to  be  worked  upon,  and 
Ireland  is  to  be  by  no  means  tranquilised  and  united  to  this 
country,  then  I  can  only  wish — to  use  a  simile  I  once  used 
in  this  House — that  she  could  be  unmoored  from  her  fasten- 
ings in  the  deep,  and  moved  three  thousand  miles  to  the 
west."  Ireland  is  still  anchored,  but  its  people  have  mov- 
ed three  thousand  miles  west,  as  most  of  them  in  the  year 
1913  are  on  the  American  continent  and  are  still  Irish,  while 
in  Ireland,  John  Bright' s  Home-Rule  dream  has  almost 
come  true. 

In  his  later  days  John  Bright  changed  to  some  extent  his 
views  relating  to  Ireland.  He  still  was  interested  in  the 
Irish  and  their  struggles,  but  they  split  on  the  question  of 
Home  Rule.  No  English  statesman  ever  immolated  himself 
more  completely  on  the  bayonet  of  his  enemies,  than  did 
John  Bright.  He  stood  by  and  pleaded  for  Ireland  when 
no  other  Englishman  had  the  temerity,  and  when  it  meant 
practical  obliquity  and  ostracism.  His  attitude  in  denounc- 
ing the  Crimean  War  brought  upon  him  the  veiled  charge  of 


3o8     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


not,  treason,  but  something  worse — aiding  the  enemy.  His 
efforts  for  India  brought  upon  him  the  attacks  of  civil  serv- 
ants and  the  government;  yet  they  were  based  on  lofty 
ideas  of  humanity,  justice  and  right,  not  only  of  Quakers, 
but  of  all  men. 

During  the  American  War  of  the  Rebellion,  England 
promptly  acknowledged  the  belligerent  rights  of  the  Con- 
federacy, and  the  nation  gave  its  sympathy  and  moral  sup- 
port to  the  men  who  proposed  to  disrupt  the  greatest  experi- 
ment in  pure  democracy  ever  known.  There  was  a  minor- 
ity and  its  leader  was  John  Bright,  who  was  charged  with 
many  crimes.  The  "Alabama,"  that  was  built  by  Messrs. 
Laird  &  Co.,  at  Birkenhead,  and  sailed  under  the  English 
flag,  and  devasted  American  Commerce.  Mr.  Laird  stated 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  amid  cheers,  that  he  would  rath- 
er be  known  as  the  builder  of  a  dozen  "Alabamas"  than  a 
man  like  John  Bright  who  had  set  class  against  class. 

John  Bright  continued  to  attack  the  English  standpoint 
and  his  opponents  were  obliged  to  pay  to  America  £3,000,- 
000,  the  award  of  the  Geneva  Arbitrators  for  the  damages 
caused  by  the  "Alabama."  During  the  year  1912,  the 
House  of  Lords  has  had  its  powers  limited,  after  a  fight 
which  has  virtually  lasted  for  fifty-four  years.  In  1858 
John  Bright  turned  his  wit  and  sarcasm  against  the  peers  in 
the  following  speech:  "I  am  not  going  to  attack  the  House 
of  Lords.  Some  people  tell  us  that  the  House  of  Lords  has 
in  its  time  done  great  things  for  freedom.  It  may  be  so, 
though  I  have  not  been  so  successful  in  finding  out  how  or 
where,  as  some  people  have  been.  At  least  since  1690,  or 
thereabouts,  when  the  peers  became  the  dominant  power  in 
this  country,  I  am  scarcely  able  to  discover  one  single  meas- 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  309 


ure  important  to  human  or  P^nglish  freedom  which  has  come 
from  the  voluntary  consent  and  good-will  of  their  House. 

The  following  from  one  of  his  speeches  is  a  description  of 
a  peer : 

"You  know  what  a  peer  is.  He  is  one  of  those  fortunate 
individuals  who  are  described  as  coming  into  the  world 
'with  a  silver  spoon  in  their  mouths.'  Or,  to  use  the  more 
polished  and  elaborate  phraseology  of  the  poet,  it  may  be 
said  of  him: 

Fortune  came  smiling  to  his  youth  and  woo'd  it, 
And  purpled  greatness  met  his  ripened  years. 

When  he  is  a  boy,  among  his  brothers  and  sisters,  he  is 
pre-eminent;  he  is  the  eldest  son;  he  will  be  'My  Lord,; 
this  fine  mansion,  this  beautiful  park,  these  countless  farms, 
this  vast  political  influence,  will  one  day  centre  on  this  in- 
nocent boy.  The  servants  know  it,  and  pay  him  greater 
deference  on  account  of  it.  He  grows  up  and  goes  to  school 
and  college;  his  future  position  is  known;  he  has  no  great 
incitement  to  work  hard,  because  whatever  he  does  it  is  very 
difficult  to  improve  his  fortune  in  any  way.  When  he 
leaves  college  he  has  a  secure  position  ready-made  for  him, 
*  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  he  should  follow  ard- 
ently any  of  those  occupations  which  make  men  great  among 
their  fellow-men.  He  takes  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Peers; 
whatever  be  his  character,  whatever  his  intellect,  whatever 
his  previous  life,  whether  he  be  in  England  or  ten  thousand 
miles  away;  be  he  tottering  down  the  steep  of  age,  or  be  he 
passing  through  the  imbecility  of  second  childhood,  yet  by 
means  of  that  channing  contrivance — made  only  for  peers 
— vote  by  prox}%  he  gives  his  vote  for  or  against,  and,  un- 


310     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


fortunately,  too  often  against,  all  those  great  measures  on 
which  you  and  the  country  have  set  your  hearts.  There  is 
another  kind  of  peer  which  I  am  afraid  to  touch  upon — that 
creature  of — what  shall  I  say*? — of  monstrous,  nay,  even 
of  adulterous  birth — the  spiritual  peer.  I  assure  you  with 
the  utmost  frankness  and  sincerity  that  it  is  not  in  the  nature 
of  things  that  men  in  these  positions  should  become  willing 
fountains  from  which  can  flow  great  things  from  the  free- 
dom of  any  country.  We  are  always  told  that  the  peers  are 
necessary  as  a  check.  If  that  is  so,  I  must  say  they  answer 
their  purpose  admirably." 

Such  sentiments  fired  against  this  venerable  institution  in 
1858  produced  a  most  unfavorable  impression,  and  did  not 
add  to  the  popularity  of  the  eminent  Quaker,  yet  there  are 
some  in  England  to-day  who  see  in  the  witty  and  denuncia- 
tory characterization,  vital  and  prophetic  truths;  and  if 
English  Quakers  needed  any  justification  for  their  great 
representation,  they  have  it  in  the  resolution  limiting  the  vote 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  passed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  1910: 

"I.  That  it  is  expedient  that  the  House  of  Lords  be  dis- 
abled by  law  from  rejecting  or  amending  a  Money  Bill,  but 
that  any  such  limitation  by  law  shall  not  be  taken  to  dimin- 
ish or  qualify  the  existing  rights  and  privileges  of  the  House 
of  Commons. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  Resolution  a  Bill  shall  be  con- 
sidered a  Money  Bill  if,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Speaker,  it 
contains  only  provisions  dealing  with  all  or  any  of  the  fol- 
lowing subjects,  namely,  the  imposition,  repeal,  remission, 
alteration,  or  regulation  of  taxation;  charges  on  the  Con- 
solidated Fund  or  the  provision  of  money  by  Parliament; 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  311 


Supply;  the  appropriation,  control  ,or  regulation  of  public 
money;  the  raising  or  guarantee  of  any  loan  or  the  repay- 
ment thereof  for  matters  incidental- to  those  subjects  or  any 
of  them. 

2.  That  it  is  expedient  that  the  powers  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  as  respects  Bills  other  than  Money  Bills,  be  restricted 
by  law,  so  that  any  such  Bill  which  has  passed  the  House 
of  Commons  in  three  successive  Sessions  and,  having  been 
sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords  at  least  once  a  month  before 
the  end  of  the  session,  has  been  rejected  by  that  House  in 
each  of  those  Sessions,  shall  become  law  without  the  consent 
of  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Royal  assent  being  declared : 
Provided  that  at  least  two  years  shall  have  elapsed  between 
the  date  of  the  iirst  introduction  of  the  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Commons  and  the  date  on  which  it  passes  the  House  of 
Commons  for  the  third  time. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  Resolution  a  Bill  shall  be  treated 
as  rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords  if  it  has  not  been  passed 
by  the  House  of  Lords  either  without  Amendment  or  with 
such  Amendments  only  as  may  be  agreed  upon  by  both 
Houses. 

3.  That  it  is  expedient  to  limit  the  duration  of  Parlia- 
ment to  five  years.'' 

John  Bright  certainly  did  everything  in  England  to  make 
himself  unpopular  with  the  landed  gentry ;  he  was  the  cham- 
pion of  the  minority  who  were  fighting  for  the  majority,  yet 
England  appreciated  his  greatness ;  his  sincerity  and  honesty 
of  purpose  were  never  doubted.  When  Gladstone  asked 
him  to  join  the  Liberal  ministry  of  1868,  he  became  against 
his  will  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  "I  was 
offered,"  he  said,  with  a  flash  of  wit,  "any  office  except  that 


312     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


of  war.''  He  went  into  the  service  of  the  Gladstone  min- 
istry "with  the  cordial  and  gracious  acquiescence  of  her 
Majesty,  the  Queen,"  but  much  against  his  will,  a  fact  well 
illustrated  in  the  following,  from  one  of  his  speeches:  "I 
have  not  aspired  at  any  time  of  my  life  to  the  rank  of  a 
Privy  Councilor,  nor  to  the  dignity  of  a  Cabinet  office.  I 
should  have  preferred  much  to  have  remained  in  that  com- 
mon rank  of  simple  citizenship  in  which  heretofore  I  have 
lived.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  which  has 
often  struck  me  as  being  one  of  great  beauty.  Many  of 
you  will  recollect  that  the  prophet,  in  journeying  to  and 
fro,  was  very  hospitably  entertained  by  what  is  termed  in 
the  Bible  a  Shunammite  woman.  In  return  for  her  hospi- 
tality, he  wished  to  make  her  some  amends,  and  he  called 
her  to  him  and  asked  her  what  he  should  do  for  her.  'Shall 
I  speak  for  thee  to  the  king,'  he  said,  'or  to  the  captain  of 
the  host*?' 

Now,  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  that  the  Shunammite 
woman  returned  a  great  answer.  She  replied  in  declining 
the  prophet's  offer,  'I  dwell  among  mine  own  people.' 
When  the  question  was  put  to  me  whether  I  would  step  into 
the  position  in  which  I  now  find  myself,  the  answer  from 
my  heart  was  the  same — I  wish  to  dwell  among  mine  own 
people.  Happily,  the  time  may  have  come — I  trust  it  has 
come — when  in  this  country  an  honest  man  may  enter  the 
service  of  the  crown,  and  at  the  same  time  not  feel  it  in  any 
degree  necessary  to  disassociate  himself  from  his  own  peo- 
ple." 

The  enemies  of  the  Quaker  statesman  attempted  every 
expedient  to  check  him.  In  1859  Viscount  Palmerston  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  bribing  him,  at  least  his  letter  of  the  2nd 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  ENGLAND  313 


of  July,  1859,  to  the  Queen,  has  all  the  ear-marks  of  a  bribe. 
He  tells  her  that  he  has  heard  from  a  number  of  sources  that 
Mr.  Bright  would  be  highly  flattered  if  he  received  the  of- 
fice of  Privy  Councilor,  and  he  suggests  that  the  honor 
might  change  the  direction  of  his  thoughts,  all  of  which 
would  be  an  advantage  to  her  Majesty. 

But  the  Queen  refused  her  assent  to  Lord  Palmerston's 
proposal  on  the  ground  that  he  had  rendered  the  state  no 
service, — a  clever  sarcasm,  and,  m.oreover,  she  doubted  very 
much  whether  an  honor  of  the  kind  would  influence  Mr. 
Bright;  and  if  it  did  not,  her  Majesty  shrewdly  remarks  that 
what  he  said  in  the  future  would  only  have  additional 
weight  as  a  Privy  Councilor.  Queen  Victoria,  who  at  the 
last  became  the  great  Quaker's  friend,  was  a  far  better  judge 
of  John  Bright  than  was  Lord  Palmerston. 

John  Bright  never  visited  America,  and  the  reason  is  giv- 
en by  Allen  Jay  in  his  Autobiography.    Jay  wrote  to  him, 
"If  thee  will  come  to  America,  we  will  give  thee  a  great 
ovation."    "That  is  just  the  reason  I  cannot  go,"  replied 
the  English  Quaker.      "Sometime  ago  the  press  reported 
that  I  was  going  to  America,  and  I  began  to  receive  cable- 
grams offering  me  hotel  accommodations  in  many  cities.  The 
Pullman  Car  Company  cabled  that  a  fully  equipped  train 
would  meet  me  with  parlor  and  dining  cars.    Then  came  a 
message  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  saying  that 
I  must  be  the  nation's  guest.    I  saw  at  once  they  were  going 
to  make  a  hero  of  me,  and  that  they  would  kill  me,  so  I 
had  to  give  it  up." 

John  Bright  died  March  the  27th,  1889,  and  rests  in  the 
Friends  Burial  Ground  at  Rochdale. 


Book  II. 

THE  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  AND 
OTHER  COLONIES. 

1656-1913. 


All  that  remains  is  to  set  upon  Boston  Common,  the 
scene  of  their  martyrdom,  a  fitting  monument  to  the  heroes 
that  won  the  victory. 

John  Fiske. 


JOSEPH  WANTOX 
Quaker  Governor  of  Rhode  Island 


MNS.  RUSSELL  SAGE 
Eourth  Great  Granddaughier  of  Christopher  Holder 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  AND  INHERITANCE 
IN  AMERICA. 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 
MRS.  RUSSELL  SAGE. 


Lineal  Descendant  of  Peleg  Slocum  and  Christopher  Holder,  Members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends. 


Next  to  George  Fox  and  William  Penn  the  most  influ- 
ential Quaker  in  England  has  been  John  Bright,  a  domin- 
ant figure  in  English  politics  and  reforms  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  America  the  life  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  a 
fourth  great  granddaughter  of  Christopher  Holder,  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  Quaker  Governors  Wanton  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  of  Peleg  Slocum,  the  pioneer  Quaker  minister, 
presents  an  extraordinary  and  forceful  illustration  of  the 
duration  of  Quaker  ideas  and  inheritance,  as  this  great 
American  philanthropist  has  brought  down  to  the  nineteenth 
century  the  Christian  ideals  of  her  distinguished  Quaker 
forebears,  and  in  her  philanthropic  work  has  rendered  an  ac- 
counting of  a  great  trust  that  has  given  her  a  place  with  the 
great  names  of  history.  John  Bright  fought  for  Quaker 
principles  and  ideals  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Mrs.  Rus- 
sel  Sage  has  made  the  world  her  field  through  the  wonderful 
workings  of  the  Sage  Foundation  whose  charity  and  philan- 
thropy is  conducted  not  only  on  humanitarian  ideals  but  on 
scientific  principles. 

The  Honorable  Russell  Sage  left  his  wife,  the  descendant 


3i8      QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


of  Quakers,  over  fifty  million  dollars  without  a  suggestion 
as  to  its  use  or  distribution.  It  might  be  said,  and  doubt- 
less has  been,  that  it  was  too  great  a  responsibility  to  place 
upon  a  frail  woman;  but  one  has  to  know  Mrs.  Sage  even 
slightly  to  understand  the  wisdom  of  the  choice.  Russell 
Sage  recognized  in  his  wife  a  strong  religious  faith,  coupled 
with  keen  intuition  for  justice  and  good  judgment.  That 
he  made  no  mistake  is  evinced  in  the  extraordinary  work  of 
the  Sage  Foundation  and  many  philanthropic  deeds  remark- 
able for  their  diversity  and  effect  upon  the  American  nation. 
Strong,  tender,  just  and  faithful  to  a  Christian  life  and  ex- 
ample, this  woman  has  been  able  to  meet  the  imposing  re- 
sponsibility, doubtless  due  to  the  religion  of  her  forbears 
and  the  Quaker  heredity  traits  that  have  come  down  to  her 
from  both  sides  of  a  distinguished  ancestry. 

The  story  of  heredity  is  interesting,  and  conclusive  to 
those  who  have  made  it  a  scientific  study.  Christopher 
Holder,  the  distinguished  missionary,  author  and  minister, 
who  founded  the  first  Quaker  Society  in  America,  in  1657, 
who  was  the  author  of  the  first  Declaration  of  Faith  of 
Quakers  in  England  and  America;  a  martyr  of  martyrs, 
whose  extraordinary  story  is  told  elsewhere  in  this  volume, 
was  the  fourth  great  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Sage.  His  daugh- 
ter Mary  married  Peleg  Slocum,  a  prominent  Quaker  min- 
ister in  the  colonial  days  of  Rhode  Island  and  Massachais- 
etts,  and  down  through  the  famous  names  of  colonial  his- 
tory— the  Slocums,  Scotts,  Holders,  Wantons,  Jermains, 
Piersons,  we  follow  her  forebears  until  the  year  of  her  birth. 

Christopher  Holder  was  an  English  aristocrat,  related,  it 
is  believed,  to  Dr.  William  Holder,  astronomer,  author, 
prelate  and  Dean  of  Westminster,  who  married  Susanna 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  319 


Wren,  sister  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  architect,  who 
lies  near  him  in  St.  Paul's.  Christopher  Holder  in  1657 
preached  the  simple  life,  charity,  freedom,  equality  of  man, 
peace,  and  the  example  of  Christ  in  all  things.  Such,  two 
and  a  half  centuries  ago,  was  the  fourth  great  grandfather 
of  Margaret  Olivia  Sage. 

While  the  world  was  witnessing  the  excess  of  ritualistic 
form  from  Rome  to  London  the  Quaker  ancestor  of  Mrs. 
Sage  was  preaching  the  peace  that  Mr.  Carnegie  is  striving 
for;  denouncing  war  from  the  standpoint  of  morality. 
There  is  not  a  great  Christian  virtue  to  the  fore  to-day  that 
was  not  advocated  by  Christopher  Holder  and  his  Quaker 
brethren.  He  denounced  slavery.  He  demanded  simplic- 
ity, the  simple  life  in  dress  and  language.  He  called  for 
truth,  humility,  a  religion  modeled  after  the  lesson  and  ex- 
ample of  Christ,  liberty  of  speech,  equality  of  men  and 
women.  Indeed  there  is  not  a  noble  sentiment  advocated 
or  commended  to-day  under  the  banner  of  Christ  and  mod- 
em intelligence  that  the  Quakers  had  not  thought  of.  They 
were  two  and  a  half  centuries  ahead  of  their  time. 

From  the  extraordinary  nature  of  the  philanthropy  of 
Mrs.  Sage,  her  life  is  well  known.  Her  acts  of  intuitive 
benevolence,  her  extended  philanthropy,  her  Christian  char- 
ity and  other  characteristics  which  have  endeared  her  to  the 
American  people,  are  doubtless  derived,  to  a  large  extent, 
from  her  Quaker  ancestry.  One  can  scarcely  conceive  a 
more  tender,  or  womanly  heart,  open  wider  to  the  real  ills 
of  humanity.  I  recall  tenderness  as  a  dominant  trait 
among  the  old  Friends  or  Quakers.  If  they  thought  in  any 
way  some  one  had  been  neglected,  some  one  unjustly  treated, 
they  were  unhappy  until  the  facts  were  known.  Tend- 


320      QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


erness,  a  strong  inborn  feeling  that  it  was  better  to  make 
a  personal  sacrifice  rather  than  a  mistake  in  giving  or  not 
giving.  I  believe  this  to  be  a  dominant  note  in  the  life  of 
the  subject  of  this  comment,  who,  so  well  illustrates  in  1912 
the  Quaker  idea  of  a  practical  following  of  Christ. 

Before  illustrating  the  great  responsibilities  of  Mrs.  Sage 
and  the  manner  in  which  she  has  met  them,  the  practical 
wisdom  of  her  methods,  I  wish  to  refer  again  to  her  hered- 
ity, which  is,  I  think,  remarkable,  if  not  unique,  among 
American  families.  In  a  corner  of  the  Crypt  of  St.  Paul's 
London,  I  found  Sir  Christopher  Wren's  tomb,  and  above 
it  the  arms  of  and  monument  to  Dr.  William  Holder  and 
Susanna  Wren  Holder,  his  wife. 

Mrs.  Sage  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  Sir  John  Dryden,  who 
married  the  daughter  of  Sir  John  Cope  of  Cannons  Ashby, 
Northampton,  England.  Their  son  was  Sir  Erasmus  Dry- 
den, Baronet,  who  was  grandfather  of  John  Dryden,  Poet 
Laureate  of  England  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.  A  sister 
of  Sir  Erasmus  married  the  Rev.  Francis  Marbury,  a  dis- 
tinguished English  divine,  whose  daughter  Katherine  mar- 
ried Richard  Scott  (1630),  later  a  famous  Quaker  of 
Providence,  R.  I.,  from  whom  are  descended  some  of  the 
most  notable  Americans,  two  of  whom  have  been  governors 
of  Rhode  Island.  Mary  Scott  married  Christopher  Holder, 
the  Quaker  minister.  And  so  we  are  led  again  to  Peleg 
Slocum,  the  Quaker  minister,  who  married  Mary  Holder, 
the  third  great  grandmother  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage. 

The  Drydens  suggest  intellectuality,  and  they  produced 
many  men  and  women  who  left  their  imprint  in  ineffaceable 
lines  upon  the  pages  of  history  in  America  and  Great  Brit- 
ain.   The  Cope,  Dryden,  Marbury,  Scott,  Holder  and 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  321 


Slocum  arms  are  all  to  be  found  in  the  English  armorial 
records,  and  tell  a  fascinating  story  of  deeds  and  loyalty, 
honorable  service  to  king  and  nation. 

To  continue  this  analysis  of  heredity  and  character  down 
through  the  centuries  from  the  earliest  known  forebears  of 
Mrs.  Sage,  brings  a  constant  surprise  because  the  traits  of 
the  Quaker  are  so  clearly  reflected  in  the  mirror  of  her  an- 
cestry. Peleg  Slocum,  her  third  great  grandfather,  who 
married  Mary  Holder,  was  a  distinguished  Quaker  min- 
ister. I  recall  seeing  the  Slocum  arms  in  the  Britism  Mus- 
eum with  the  motto  Vivit  post  fenera  virtus  (Virtue  outlives 
the  grave).  In  the  confirmatory  deed  of  Governor  William 
Bradford,  Nov.  13,  1694,  Peleg  Slocum  is  named  as  one  of 
the  proprietors  of  Dartmouth.  There  is  a  record,  1698,  of 
his  building  a  meeting  house  "for  the  people  of  God  in  scorn 
called  Quakers."  His  son  Joseph,  with  his  brother  Holder 
Slocum,  was  named  joint  executor  and  became  the  owner  of 
the  island  of  Patience  in  Naragansett  Bay — Mary  Holder's 
dowry.  Joseph  Slocum  married  into  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished families  of  Rhode  Island,  the  Wantons.  His 
wife  was  the  daughter  of  Governor  Wanton  of  Rhode  Is- 
land, 1733-40,  who  was  the  immediate  great  grandparent  of 
*  Mrs.  Sage.  Four  members  of  the  Wanton  family  became 
governors  of  Rhode  Island:  William,  1732,  John,  1734; 
Gideon,  1745;  Joseph,  1769.  Portraits  of  some  of  them 
are  to  be  seen  in  the  Redwood  Library,  Newport,  and  copies 
are  in  the  new  state  house  of  Providence.  On  the  tomb  of 
John  Wanton,  1720,  in  the  old  north  burying  ground  at 
Newport,  is  seen  the  arms  of  the  family,  the  Wantons  of 
County  Huntington  of  England.  "A  mind  conscious  in  it- 
self of  rectitude"  is  the  motto. 
21 


322     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AiMERICA 


All  these  Wantons  are  the  descendants  of  Quakers,  as  Ed- 
ward Wanton  ,the  earliest  known,  lived  . in  Boston  in  1658. 
He  was  an  officer  and  witnessed  the  death  of  the  Quakers, 
Mary  Dyer  and  William  Robinson  and  the  maiming  of 
Mrs.  Sage's  ancestor,  Christopher  Holder.  After  listening 
to  them  he  returned  to  his  home  and  laid  aside  his  sword 
with  a  vow  never  to  wear  it  again.  Soon  after,  he  joined 
the  Society  of  Friends  as  a  convert  of  Holder  and  others. 
He  aided  in  building  the  first  Quaker  meeting-house  at 
Sandwich,  and  became  a  famous  preacher.  Col.  John 
Wanton  was  a  soldier  in  1706,  and  performed  many  acts  of 
valor,  but  in  1712  he  joined  the  Society  of  Friends.  His 
daughter  Susanna  married  Joseph  Slocum  whose  son  mar- 
ried Hannah  Brown,  a  member  of  a  distinguished  family 
whose  names  figure  largely  in  the  colonial  history  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island.  Their  youngest  son,  Hon.  Wil- 
liam Brown  Slocum,  married  Olivia  Josselyn  ( 1793),  grand- 
mother of  Mrs.  Sage.  She  had  the  poetic  gift  of  her  an- 
cestors, the  Drydens,  and  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Sir 
Gilbert  de  Jocelyn,  an  officer  of  W^illiam  the  Conqueror. 
A  volume  could  be  written  regarding  the  place  held  in 
American  history  by  this  group  of  ancestors  of  Mrs.  Sage. 
They  took  as  their  motto  that  of  the  Josselyn  arms:  "To 
do  my  duty."  John  Josselyn  was  an  author,  explorer, 
member  of  the  court,  councillor,  1639,  Deputy  Governor, 
1648,  magistrate;  in  fact  filled  about  every  office  of  import- 
ance in  New  England.  Henry  Josselyn  married  a  Miss 
Stockbridge  of  a  distinguished  family  of  Huntingtonshire, 
England.  It  was  Miss  Stockbridge  who  gave  the  four 
silver  communion  cups  to  the  Hanover  Church  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  323 


It  is  through  the  Josselyns  that  Mrs.  Sage  is  descended 
from  that  famous  figure  in  American  history,  Captain  Miles 
Standish,  of  the  "Mayflower;"  and  through  him  comes  her 
right  to  membership  in  the  Mayflower  Society.  Stock- 
bridge  Josselyn  in  1768  married  Olivia  Standish,  a  lineal 
descendent  of  Miles  Standish.  Much  could  be  written  of 
this  remarkable  family  which  is  known  five  hundred  years 
previous  to  the  appearance  of  Captain  Miles  Standish  at 
Plymouth. 

Other  distinguished  families  among  the  forebears  of  Mrs. 
Sage  are  the  Pierson  and  Jermain.  The  coat  of  arms  of  the 
Piersons  indicates  that  it  is  of  the  same  root  and  branch  as 
that  of  the  Dean  of  Salisbury. 

One  of  the  earliest  known  members  was  Richard  Pierson 
of  St.  Mary's  Aldemeary,  who  in  1540  married  Elizabetll 
Church.  Henry  Pierson  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the 
town  of  Southampton,  L.  L,  by  patent  under  Governor 
Andros,  1676,  and  many  of  the  family  held  distinguished 
and  responsible  positions  in  state  and  county.  The  Hon. 
Joseph  Slocum  of  Syracuse,  married  Margaret  (Pierson) 
Jermain;  Mrs.  Russell  Sage  is  a  daughter.  Major  John 
Jermain,  her  grandfather,  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution, 
while  her  father,  John  Joseph  Slocum,  was  one  of  America's 
distinguished  and  public-spirited  citizens.  In  1849  he  was 
a  successful  merchant  and  a  member  of  the  Legislature. 
The  Emperor  of  Russia  requested  him  to  establish  agri- 
cultural schools  throughout  that  country,  which  he  did  suc- 
cessfully. High  intelligence,  refinement,  culture  and  a 
delicate  sense  of  honor  were  some  of  his  characteristics. 
Of  his  wife  it  was  said : 

"An  Elect  Lady  by  birth  and  environment,  for  the  law  of 


324     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


the  Lord  governed  the  household  into  which  she  was  born, 
and  in  this  holy  law  she  loved  to  meditate  with  an  abiding 
trust  in  its  promises,  and  a  quick  faith  which  never  wavered, 
even  when  gathering  years,  with  their  varied  experiences, 
brought  their  sorrows  and  perplexities.  As  a  wife  and 
mother,  she  ordered  well  the  ways  of  her  household.  As  a 
friend,  she  was  loyal,  and  much  given  to  hospitality,  and 
fulfilled  to  her  was  the  promise,  "With  long  life  will  I 
satisfy  thee."  She  was  gifted  with  a  peculiarly  sweet  and 
generous  nature,  for  it  was  granted  her  to  spend  an  honorable 
old  age  in  the  homes  of  her  daughter  and  son,  and  to  see 
growing  up  around  her  children's  children  of  the  third  and 
fourth  generation." 

The  mother  of  Mrs.  Sage  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the 
Huguenot  family  of  Jermains  that  settled  in  New  Rochelle 
in  early  days.  In  their  memory  Mrs.  Sage  has  presented  to 
the  New  York  Historical  Society  a  beautiful  memorial 
window  entitled  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
Major  John  Jermain,  of  Southampton,  L.  I.,  was  a  patriot 
of  the  Revolution,  and  an  officer  in  the  Westchester  militia. 
He  had  command  of  a  fort  at  Sag  Harbor  in  the  war  of 
1812.  This  gentleman  married  Margaret  Pierson,  a  de- 
cendant  of  an  old  and  prominent  English  family.  The 
youngest  child  of  Major  John  Jermain  was  Margaret  Pier- 
son  Jermain,  who  married  the  Hon.  Joseph  Slocum.  Their 
daughter  Margaret  Olivia  Slocum  married  Russell  Sage  in 
1869,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  his  time  or  period, 
who  came  down  from  a  distinguished  ancestry  which  has 
been  traced  back  to  the  time  of  the  Conqueror.  Russell 
Sage  was  a  financial  genius,  one  of  the  business  pillars  of  the 
Republic ;  but  he  was  also  a  statesman.    He  entered  Cong- 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  325 


ress  in  1854,  and  his  work  for  the  suppression  of  slavery- 
was  far-reaching  and  epoch-making.  Soon  after  his  death 
Mrs.  Sage  organized  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  and  gave 
it  the  sum  of  ten  million  dollars  to  be  expended  in  "The 
improvement  of  social  and  living  conditions  in  the  United 
States  of  America." 

The  range  of  this  extraordinary  philanthropy  is  shown  in 
the  following  from  the  charter:  "It  shall  be  within  the 
purpose  of  said  corporation  to  use  any  means  which  from 
time  to  time  shall  seem  expedient  to  its  members  or  trustees 
including  research,  publication,  education,  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  charitable  and  benevolent  activ- 
ities, agencies  and  institutions,  and  the  aid  of  any  such 
activities,  agencies  or  institutions,  already  established." 

In  a  letter  to  the  trustees,  written  in  1907,  Mrs.  Sage  de- 
fines her  meaning  clearly:  "The  scope  of  the  Foundation 
is  not  only  national,  but  it  is  broad.  It  should,  however,  pre- 
ferably, not  undertake  to  do  that  which  is  now  being  done, 
or  is  likely  to  be  effectively  done,  by  other  individuals  or 
other  agencies.  It  should  be  its  aim  to  take  up  the  larger, 
more  difficult  problems,  and  to  take  them  up  so  far  as  pos- 
sible in  such  a  manner  as  to  secure  cooperation  and  aid  in  the 
solution." 

The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  of  which  Mrs.  Sage  is 
President,  is  fundamentally  an  educational  institution. 
Its  activities  are  on  practical  lines,  and  among  its  activities 
are  many  demonstrations  of  what  can  be  done  to  improve 
social  and  living  conditions;  not  only  to  improve  these  con- 
ditions directly,  but  to  demonstrate  in  what  directions  other 
individual  and  organized  effort  can  accomplish  the  best  re- 
sults. Some  of  its  work  is  done  directly  by  its  own  staff, 
some  indirectly  through  other  societies  or  institutions. 


326     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


Illustrative  of  the  former  are  its  suburban  development 
at  Forest  Hill,  Long  Island,  including  about  140  acres  in 
area,  which  has  been  developed  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Frederick  Law  Olmsted  and  Mr.  Grosvenor  Atterbury,  and 
which  is  intended  to  provide  homes  at  moderate  cost  on  the 
smallest  possible  basis  of  initial  and  monthly  payments;  its 
establishment  of  a  chattel  loan  society  in  New  York,  and  its 
department  of  Child  Helping,  under  Dr.  Hastings  H.  Hart 
as  Director,  of  Child  Hygiene,  under  Dr.  Luther  M.  Gulick 
as  Director,  and  of  Charity  Organization  Extension,  under 
Miss  Mary  E.  Richmond  as  Director. 

Illustrative  of  the  latter  kind  of  activities  is  its  work  for 
the  prevention  of  tuberculosis,  in  which  it  is  acting  through 
the  National  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis,  the 
State  Charities  Aid  Association  in  the  State  of  New  York 
outside  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  in  the  Citv  of  New 
York  through  the  Charity  Organization  Society  in  Manhat- 
tan and  the  Brooklyn  Bureau  of  Charities  in  Brooklyn. 

The  wide  scope  of  its  field  is  well  indicated  by  the  titles 
of  its  publications : 

"The  Pittsburg  Survey,"  a  social  study  of  a  typical 
American  Industrial  City,  in  six  volumes,  including: 

"Women  and  the  Trades," 

"Work-Accidents  and  the  Law," 

"The  Steel  Workers," 

"Homestead :  the  Households  of  a  Mill  Town," 
"The  Pittsburg  District," 
"Pittsburg:  the  gist  of  the  Survey." 

"Correction  and  Prevention,"  edited  by  Charles  Rich- 
mond Henderon,  Ph.  D.,  including: 
"Prison  Reform," 


r 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  327 


"Penal  and  Reformatory  Institutions," 

"Preventive  Agencies  and  Methods," 

"Preventive  Treatment  of  Neglected  Children." 

"Juvenile  Court  Laws  in  the  United  States  Summariz- 
ed," by  Hastings  H.  Hart,  LL.  D. 

"Housing  Reform,"  by  Lawrence  Veiller. 

"Model  Tenement  House  Law,"  by  Lawrence  Veiller. 

"Workingmen's  Insurance  in  Europe,"  by  Lee  K.  Frankel 
and  Miles  M.  Dawson. 

"Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant,"  by  Clarence  Arthur 
Perry. 

"Among  School  Gardens,"  by  M.  Louise  Green,  Ph.  D. 
"Laggards  in  Our  Schools,"  by  Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Ph.  D. 

"The  Standard  of  Living  Among  Workingmen's  Famil- 
ies in  New  York  City,"  by  Herbert  Coit  Chapin,  Ph.  D. 

"Civic  Bibliography  for  Greater  New  York,"  by  James 
Bronson  Reynolds. 

"One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  by  Alice  Willard  Sol- 
enberger. 

"The  Alms  House,"  by  Alexander  Johnson. 

"Handbook  of  Settlements,"  by  Robert  A.  Woods  and 
Albert  J.  Kennedy. 

"Report  on  the  Desirability  of  Establishing  an  Employ- 
ment Bureau  in  the  City  of  New  York,"  by  Edward  T. 
Devine,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

How  suggestive  of  the  high  plane  and  singleness  of 
purpose  which  characterized  the  lives  of  the  Quakers  is  the 
characterization  of  this  work  by  one  of  the  Trustees  chosen 
by  Mrs.  Sage.  He  says:  "It  is  with  an  eye  single  to  the 
beneficent  result  to  be  accomplished,  and  with  absolute  dis- 
regard of  the  degree  of  credit  which  might  come  to  the  Rus- 


328     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


sell  Sage  Foundation  that  the  work  has  been  carried  on." 
So  we  see  the  Sage  Foundation  is,  as  has  been  well  said,  "A 
great  clearing  house  of  information." 

The  average  citizen  who  sees  the  new  interest  in  child- 
ren's playgrounds  that  has  taken  the  country  by  storm  and 
which  means  so  much  to  the  coming  men  and  women,  may 
not  identify  Mrs.  Sage  with  it,  yet  the  Sage  Foundation  has 
made  the  most  careful  investigations  into  this  subject,  and, 
as  a  result,  we  have  thirty  elaborate  pamphlets  treating 
every  phase  of  this  important  subject  available  for  every 
school  district  in  the  world.  The  innate  modesty  of  the 
Sage  Foundation  workers  is  ever  present  and  ever  suggestive 
of  the  plain  and  simple  life  of  Friends  who  cared  not  for 
glory  or  fame.  The  Sage  Foundation  is  often  found  stand- 
ing behind  some  good  project  lending  a  helping  hand,  mak- 
ing a  doubtful  thing  a  success.  This  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  work  for  the  blind  done  by  the  Foundation.  In  the 
summer  of  1908  the  work  was  carried  on  under  the  title  of 
"The  Committee  of  the  New  York  Association  for  the 
Blind."  There  was  no  visible  association  with  Mrs.  Sage, 
yet  hundreds  of  children  were  being  saved  from  blindness 
by  the  Sage  Foundation. 

The  Foundation  in  scores  of  ways  stands  behind  the 
poor.  In  her  walks  on  Long  Island  Mrs.  Sage  frequently 
talked  to  workingmen,  who  did  not  know  her  identity  and  so 
learned  luminous  facts  about  their  condition.  From  such  ex- 
perience grew  the  idea  of  building  practical  homes  for  work- 
ingmen on  Long  Island.  It  was  not  a  charity,  but  pure 
philanthropy  with  a  judicious  business  basis  behind  it;  so 
that  no  man  lost  his  self-respect  in  taking  advantage  of  what 
she  offered.  No  purer  or  better  aid  to  humanity  can  be 
conceived  than  this. 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  329 


Mrs.  Sage  is  revolutionizing  the  loan  business  and  formu- 
lating a  system  all  over  the  country  to  prevent  the  robbery 
of  the  poor.  An  extraordinary  feature  of  her  work  through 
the  Foundation  is  thoroughness.  Not  only  is  financial  aid 
given  where  it  is  needed,  but  the  Foundation  works  on  the 
principle  that  if  an  object  needs  aid  it  should  receive  com- 
plete exploitation,  so  that  the  philanthropist  of  to-morrow 
or  a  century  from  now  will  have  at  hand  full  and  complete 
data  on  the  subject  from  every  point  of  view.  This  is  ac- 
complished by  the  publication  of  books,  and  up  to  July, 
1911,  the  Foundation  has  published  nearly  thirty  volumin- 
ous volumes,  forming  a  "growing  library  of  prime  import- 
ance to  all  interested  in  the  social  and  economic  aspects  of 
modem  life,  based  upon  painstaking  inquiries  into  condi- 
tions of  life,  labor  and  education  by  competent  investigat- 
ors." 

The  idea  of  this  gentle  descendant  of  Quakers  is  to  make 
life  worth  living  in  the  truest  sense,  to  make  it  brighter, 
cheerier,  make  it  worth  while.  She  not  only  takes  the  light 
of  religion  into  a  poor  man's  home,  but  she  aids  the  cheerful 
giver  everywhere  by  telling  him  or  her  how  to  give  and  the 
exact  conditions  which  prevail  regarding  the  charity  in  view. 
Six  or  more  books  have  been  written  on  the  City  of  Pitts- 
burg alone  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  men  and  women 
in  cities  of  this  kind.  Under  the  head  of  Correction  and 
Prevention  are  five  volumes.  Some  of  the  titles  are :  Pris- 
on Reform;  Penal  Institutions;  Preventive  Treatment  of 
Neglected  Children;  Cottage  and  Congregate  Institutions 
Then  there  are  books  on  Housing  Reform,  a  line  in  which 
Mrs.  Sage  is  active.  Four  books  are  on  Socialized  Schools ; 
three  on  Juvenile  Courts,  while  others  refer  to  the  ideal 


330     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


almshouse,  homeless  men,  a  study  of  one  thousand  cases; 
handbook  of  Settlements ;  Standard  of  Living  among  Work- 
ingmen  and  Women,  how  it  can  be  raised;  Workingmen's 
Insurance,  etc. 

One  is  amazed  in  contemplating  the  extraordinary  di- 
versity of  this  work.  Apparently  there  is  hardly  a  con- 
dition of  the  poor  or  of  labor  that  has  not  aroused  the  inter- 
est and  sympathy  of  this  descendant  of  Quakers,  who  seeks 
with  unerring  wisdom  and  intuition  the  betterment  of 
humanity. 

Mrs.  Sage  has  taken  an  especial  interest  in  the  blind. 
Possibly  it  will  startle  the  reader  to  know  that  the  State  of 
New  York  alone  has  over  six  thousand  blind  persons  more 
or  less  dependent  upon  it.  Mrs.  Sage  discovered  that  of 
this  army  nineteen  hundred  and  eighty-four  had  lost  their 
sight  unnecessarily,  while  six  hundred  and  twenty  were 
blind  of  a  preventable  disease.  The  influence  of  the  Sage 
Foundation  was  directed  in  this  direction,  and  a  permanent 
committee  appointed  under  Samuel  E.  Eliot  who  now  con- 
ducts a  national  campaign  for  the  prevention  of  blindness. 
Thousands  of  pamphlets  were  issued.  Those  having  the 
care  of  infants  were  examined;  and  the  subject  investigated 
all  over  the  nation. 

I  conceive  one  of  the  great  results  accomplished  by  the 
Foundation  not  the  giving  of  money  alone,  but  the  public 
awakening,  the  creating  of  an  interest  in  the  subject  among 
thousands  in  Europe  and  America.  The  Sage  Foundation 
has  aided  the  Red  Cross,  the  Presidents  Homes  Commission, 
and  the  Child  Savmg  Congress  in  Washington,  and  one  has 
but  to  glance  at  the  publications  of  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Department  to  see  how  earnestly,  how  thoroughly  and 


SIR  JOHX  EXDICOTT 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  331 


conscientiously  the  work  of  investigation  has  been  done. 
There  are  books  on  the  "Dominant  Note  of  Modern  Philan- 
thropy," The  Broadening  Sphere  of  Organized  Charity," 
"The  Formation  of  Charity  Organization  in  Small  Cities," 
"Organization  in  Smaller  Cities,"  "First  Principles  in  the 
Relief  of  Distress,"  "Friendly  Visiting,"  "The  Interrelation 
of  Social  Movements,"  "Transportation,  Agreement  and 
Code,"  "The  Real  Story  of  a  Real  Family,"  etc.  Then 
there  is  an  Exchange  Branch  with  its  minor  publications,  in 
all  of  which,  knowing  the  president  of  the  Foundation,  one 
sees  her  fine  intelligence,  her  broad  charity  as  the  dominant 
chord.  How  can  I  make  humanity  better  ^  is  the  question 
this  descendant  of  Quakers  is  answering. 

I  am  constantly  reminded  of  the  social  life  of  the  Quak- 
ers where  the  charity  is  so  finely  administered  in  the  various 
communities  that  the  objects  of  charity  are  not  known  to 
the  public.  The  poor  never  lose  their  self  respect.  Their 
children  are  educated  in  schools  side  by  side  with  the  child- 
ren of  the  rich  and  it  is  not  known  that  they  are  being  edu- 
cated by  the  Society  at  large;  they  often  do  not  know  it 
themselves. 

What  Mrs.  Sage's  work  means,  especially  the  feature  of 
investigation,  and  the  resultant  reports,  can  be  appreciated 
by  those  who  know  that  millions  have  been  thrown  away  in 
America  and  England  by  false  charity  and  ignorance  regard- 
ing its  proper  administration.  The  Sage  Foundation  not 
only  gives  to  charity  intelligently,  but  it  carries  on  a  bureau 
of  education  for  charity  workers  in  the  years  to  come  and 
aids  institutional  and  individual  efforts  over  the  breadth 
and  length  of  the  land.  Every  great  fund  for  charity, 
every  charitably  disposed  man  or  woman  becomes  the  target 


332     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


of  professional  criminals  who  pose  as  victims  to  the  inevit- 
able, deserving  charity.  In  the  years  past  thousands  of 
these  parasites  have  fed  upon  the  charitably  disposed,  due 
to  the  lack  of  information  and  systematic  method,  fully 
supplied  in  these  elaborate  investigations  designed  to  aid 
charity  and  those  interested  in  it. 

To  intelligently  aid  communities,  or  correct  errors  in 
social  centers,  it  is  evident  that  complete  knowledge  of  the 
conditions  is  essential.  I  find  in  this  connection  a  most  in- 
teresting book  by  Miss  Byington,  Association  Field  Secre- 
tary of  the  vSage  Foundation  Charity  Organization,  entitled, 
"What  Social  Workers  should  know  about  their  own  Com- 
munities." This  volume  indicates  and  suggests  activities 
in  hundreds  of  directions,  showing  the  keen,  intelligent 
direction  that  has  marked  every  step  in  the  work  of  Mrs'. 
Sage.  There  is  scarcely  a  field  of  education  where  the  work 
is  to  fit  the  public  for  the  struggle  for  existence  in  which  her 
discerning  mind  is  not  seen.  In  the  year  1907  Mrs.  Sage 
gave  one  million  dollars  to  the  Emma  Willard  Seminary  of 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  of  which  she  is  a  graduate  and  also  President 
of  the  Emma  Willard  Association.  In  the  Troy  Press  of 
April  4,  1908,  I  find  the  following  reference  to  this  munifi- 
cent donation  to  the  uplift  of  the  country : 

"The  broadside  of  beautiful  buildingss  projected  by  the 
Emma  Willard  School,  presented  today,  and  made  possible 
by  the  munificence  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  the  most  eminent 
graduate  from  this  venerable,  victorious  and  renowned  in- 
stitution, will  be  viewed  with  pleasure  and  pride  by  our 
people.  This  presentation  is  representative  of  an  epochal 
change  in  the  direction  of  development,  and  prophetic  of  an 
ample  magnitude,  which  will  assure  the  attainment  of  a  col- 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  333 


legiate  classification  in  the  near  future.  Incidentally  this 
School  will  play  its  full  part  in  making  Troy  one  of  the 
leading  education  centres  of  the  country — a  very  valuable 
moral  and  material  asset  for  any  community.  The  cause  of 
humanity  is  under  heavy  obligations  to  noble  women  of  the 
type  of  Emma  Willard  and  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  whose  names 
will  be  inseparably  interlinked  in  the  progressive  history  of 
the  Emma  Willard  School." 

One  of  the  beautiful  halls  of  this  series  is  known  as  the 
Sage  Hall,  which  "has  all  the  essentials  of  a  home  for 
students,"  in  which  the  highest  type  of  refined  home  life  is 
cultivated.  It  is  entirely  separated  from  the  other  build- 
ings, and,  therefore,  makes  possible  an  atmosphere  of  quiet 
and  rest." 

To  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute  of  Troy,  Mrs. 
Sage  has  given  one  million  dollars;  an  institution  that  well 
deserves  the  gift,  having  graduated  a  remarkable  number  of 
men  who  have  become  distinguished  citizens.  To  one  of 
the  public  schools  of  Sag  Harbor,  L.  I.,  she  gave  $1 15,000. 
To  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  New  York 
$350,000,  and  to  the  American  Seaman's  Friend  Society, 
$150,000.  To  the  Northfield,  Mass.,  Seminary,  an  old 
and  worthy  institution,  she  gave  $150,000. 

Mrs.  Sage's  sympathy  for  indigent  women  found  express- 
ion in  a  gift  of  $350,000,  toward  a  home  for  them,  while  a 
gift  of  $100,000,  to  the  University  of  Syracuse,  is  but  one 
among  many  which  she  has  personally  made,  and  is  still 
making,  all  marked  demonstrations  of  the  intelligent  ful- 
fillment of  what  to  her  is  a  sacred  trust. 

Among  the  gifts  to  the  public  made  by  Mrs.  Sage  are  the 
Constitution  Island  opposite  West  Point,  and  gifts  of  art, 


334     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


objects  and  collections  to  the  great  museums  of  the  country; 
an  illustration  is  the  Vroman  Ivories  to  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.  One  of  the  latest  is  the  church  building  given  to 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Far  Rockaway,  L.  I.,  and 
dedicated  as  a  memorial  to  her  husband.  As  Dr.  Pierson 
said  of  the  beautiful  window  of  this  church,  it  has  a  three- 
fold offering :  first,  a  tribute  of  a  wife  to  a  husband ;  second, 
a  tribute  of  a  church  member  to  a  house  of  God;  third,  a 
tribute  of  a  Christian  believer  to  her  Divine  Lord  and 
Master.  One  might  add  a  fourth,  a  gift  to  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  a  house  of  God." 

The  church  stands  on  the  highest  land  in  Far  Rockaway, 
and  presents  a  noble  appearance.  It  is  cruciform  in  shape ; 
and  contains  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  seats  and  has  every 
facility  for  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  church.  In  various 
parts  of  the  church  the  personality  of  Mrs.  Sage  is  shown. 
Against  the  rear  wall  of  the  chancel  and  facing  the  congre- 
gation, is  a  large  elaborately  carved  reredos  of  oak,  upon 
which  appear  various  symbols  as  follows:  Near  the  top 
are  twelve  shields  decorated  in  color  bearing  upon  them  the 
symbols  of  the  passion  of  our  Lord.  Below  these  shields 
runs  an  inscription,  chosen  by  Mrs.  Sage  and  taken  from  the 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  wherein  is  that  wonderful 
picture  of  the  Son  of  Man,  sitting  in  glory  upon  His  throne 
surrounded  by  His  Holy  Angels.  The  inscription  is  as  fol- 
lows: "Come  ye  blessed  of  my  father,  inherit  the  kingdom, 
for  I  was  an  hungered  and  ye  gave  me  meat,  I  was  thirsty, 
ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a  stranger,  ye  took  me  in;  naked, 
ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick,  ye  visited  me:  I  was  in  prison, 
and  ye  came  unto  me." 

The  Tiffany  memorial  window  in  the  church  is  one  of  the 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  335 


best  and  most  purely  American  windows  ever  seen  in  this 
country.  Mrs.  Sage  suggested  the  motive,  and  as  Mr.  Tif- 
fany said,  "It  is  the  symbol  of  Life,  the  soft  meadows  from 
which  the  tree  has  its  birth,  representing  the  earliest  stages 
of  life.  Then  as  the  roots  and  trunk  grow,  they  reach  out 
over  the  rocks  of  the  hillside  and  the  trunks  become  gnarled 
with  age.  But  all  through  life  it  is  lifting  its  branches  to- 
ward the  sky,  the  land  of  Promise." 

This  beautiful  window,  an  inspiration  in  itself,  recalled 
to  Mrs.  Sage  the  following  poem  which  she  selected  for  the 
purpose : 

"Rose  and  amber  around  the  sun, 

Lo,  another  day  is  done. 
And  on  the  horizon's  rim, 

Slumber  the  mountains,  vast  and  dim ; 
Thus  in  the  embrace  of  waiting  skies. 

Earth  will  rest  'till  morning  rise. 

When  the  shadows  fall  for  me, 

Love,  my  rose  and  amber  be. 
And  on  life's  horizon  rim, 

Heavenly  mountains  slumber  dim, 
Jesus,  Savior,  to  Thy  breast. 

Fold  me  then  in  perfect  rest. 
Safe  in  shielding  such  as  Thine, 

'Till  the  eternal  morning  shine." 

Beneath  the  window  is  a  brass  tablet  bearing  the  follow- 
ing inscription : 

This  Window  is  Erected 
in  Memory  of 
My  beloved  husband 

Russell  Sage 
Margaret  Olivia  Sage 
In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1909. 


336     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


In  attempting  to  sum  up  the  effect  of  Quaker  influence  in 
the  twentieth  century  through  Mrs.  Sage,  who,  on  paternal 
and  maternal  sides,  has  come  down  from  distinguished 
American  Quakers,  the  pioneer  of  this  movement  in  1656, 
it  is  manifest  that  I  cannot  exhaust  the  subject  here.  I 
merely  present  the  salient  features,  and  am  confident  if  the 
real  and  complete  life  of  Mrs.  Sage  could  be  written  it 
would  be  found  that  her  private  gifts,  philanthropies  and 
deeds  of  charity  and  goodness  of  which  no  one  hears,  would 
be  in  proportionate  importance  with  those  which  are  made 
public  through  the  channel  of  the  Sage  Foundation  and  its 
various  interests,  previously  mentioned.  In  riding  with  her 
one  day  we  came  to  the  gate  of  a  park  where  the  guards 
were  old  soldiers.  As  they  saluted  the  kindly-faced  gentle- 
woman, I  fancied  I  knew  what  was  passing  in  her  mind, — a 
picture  of  the  war  of  a  nation  and  of  the  men  who  had  helped 
to  save  it,  the  thought  of  all  it  meant  finding  expression 
in  her  face,  a  benediction  to  these  two  old  soldiers.  She 
stopped  the  carriage,  handing  a  sum  of  money  to  them,  and 
they  were  at  attention  saluting  as  she  passed  on.  The  act, 
spontaneous  and  unobtrusive,  was  a  little  one,  but  nothing 
could  better  illustrate  the  responsive,  kindly,  patriotic, 
appreciative  nature  of  this  fourth  great  granddaughter 
of  Christopher  Holder,  the  Quaker  martyr;  and  of  another 
grandsire,  one  Captain  Miles  Standish,  who  led  the  first 
Puritans  on  to  the  forest-lined  shores  of  the  American 
continent. 

That  Mrs.  Sage  represents  in  a  marked  degree  the  best 
elements  of  her  distinguished  ancestry,  is  evidenced  by  the 
opinions  of  many  authorities  and  all  who  have  been  brought 
into  contact  with  her.    The  author  of  an  exhaustive  work 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  337 


on  the  Sage  and  Slocum  families  says :  "She  inherits,  with- 
out doubt,  the  best  traits  of  her  distinguished  ancestors 
whose  personal  history  has  already  been  given.  Environ- 
ment has  been  favorable  to  the  development  of  these  char- 
acteristics. Only  those  who  have  enjoyed  the  most  intimate 
acquaintance  with  her  could  appreciate  the  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart,  and  the  noble  qualities  with  which  nature  has  en- 
dowed her.  One  of  her  closest  friends,  who,  after  referring 
to  her  ancestral  line,  says: 

"From  such  a  parentage  it  follows  that  Margaret  Olivia 
Slocum  was  blessed  with  rare  mental  endowments  and  a 
harmony  of  character  that  have  signally  qualified  her  for  an 
active  and  conspicuously  useful  career.  With  the  wisdom 
of  a  Solomon,  with  the  mature  judgment  of  a  Judge  in 
Equity,  and  with  a  generosity  that  does  credit  to  her  heart  as 
well  as  to  her  business  sagacity,  she  has  met  and  overcome 
the  serious  difficulties  that  beset  her  pathway.  In  her  bene- 
factions she  has  chosen  wisely,  and  given  where,  in  her 
opinion,  the  result  of  long  experience,  the  greatest  good 
could  be  accomplished;  and  it  goes  without  saying,  that  in 
the  future  'thousands  will  rise  up  to  call  her  blessed.'  In 
dealing  with  old  employees  of  her  husband,  who  had  served 
him  faithfully  for  many  years,  she  generously  doubled  the 
amount  of  their  salaries.  No  woman  ever  experienced  in  a 
greater  degree  the  scriptural  assurance  that  'it  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive.'  Her  whole  life  has  been  spent 
in  doing  good  and  contributing  to  the  happiness  of  others." 

"Those  who  have  known  Mrs.  Sage  only  as  the  gentle, 
sympathetic.  Christian  woman,  could  realize  that  she  is  a 
woman  of  indomitable  will,  fearless,  and  self-possessed,  and 
equal  to  any  emergency.  Incidents  in  her  life,  known  to  only 
22 


338     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


a  few  of  her  most  intimate  friends,  have  proved  this  be- 
yond question.  In  this  respect  she  is  one  woman  among  a 
thousand." 

This  reference  to  Mrs.  Sage  as  a  descendant  of  Quakers 
and  prominent  Presbyterians  in  the  last  century,  is  not  of 
course  intended  as  a  complete  life  of  the  subject,  yet  it  will 
not  be  out  of  place  to  refer  to  her  distinguished  brother  Col. 
Joseph  Jermain  Slocum,  who  served  with  honor  and  dis- 
tinction throughout  the  Civil  War.  He  married  Miss  Sal- 
lie  L'Hommedieu.  Col.  Slocum  had  two  sons,  Col.  Herbert 
Jermain  Slocum,  who  graduated  from  West  Point  in  1872 
and  has  served  in  the  Spanish,  Cuban  and  Indian  Wars  with 
distinction  and  credit  to  his  ancestor  Captain  Miles  Stand- 
ish;  the  other  son.  Major  Stephen  L'Hommedieu  Slocum, 
has  an  enviable  record  as  an  Indian  fighter,  having  received 
his  appointment  at  the  hands  of  President  Hayes  for  merito- 
rious conduct  as  aide  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  Sturgis  in  the  In- 
dian campaign  of  1878.  His  executive  and  diplomatic  talents 
have  made  him  particularly  valuable  to  his  country  as  mili- 
tary attache  at  the  Courts  of  St.  Petersburg,  Sweden  and 
England.  He  w^as  on  the  staff  of  Lord  Roberts  during  the 
African  War,  and  was  sent  to  Africa  on  a  secret  and  special 
mission  which  he  carried  out  with  signal  credit  and  heroism. 

In  perusing  the  life  of  Mrs.  Sage,  as  briefly  outlined,  no 
one  can  question  that  the  American  living  descendants  of 
pioneer  Quakers  are  fulfilling  the  promise  of  their  ancestors. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  portion  of  the  country  that  has 
not  been  benefited  in  some  way  by  the  benefactions  of  Mrs. 
Sage.  The  Willard  School  and  the  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy have  been  referred  to,  and  in  1909  Mrs.  Sage  gave  to 
Princeton  University  a  beautiful  building  surmounted  by  a 


HOLDER  nnvEii 

Presented  to  Princeton  Unii:ersity  hi)  Mrs.  Russell  S<i(/c  in  Honor  of 
Her  Fourth  Great  Crandfatlter.  Christopher  Holder  f  Kiod) 


QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA  339 


tower,  one  of  the  most  commanding  and  impressive  piles 
connected  with  the  University.  This  she  gave  as  a  memor- 
ial to  her  fourth  great  grandfather  Christopher  Holder.  In 
the  building  is  a  tablet  bearing  the  following : 

HOLDER  HALL 

NAMED  IN  HONOR  OF  CHRISTOPHER 
HOLDER  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  SOCIETY 
OF  FRIENDS  IN  AMERICA  IN  THE 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  DEVOUT, 
LOVING,  LOYAL  TO  DUTY,  PATIENT 
IN  SUFFERING.  FOR  THIS  HALL 
AN'D  TOW^ER  PRINCETON  UNIVERS- 
ITY IS  INDEBTED  TO  HIS  DESCEND- 
ANT MARGARET  OLIVIA  SAGE— 1909. 

Mrs.  Sage  has  always  been  interested  in  nature,  and  her 
contributions  to  the  Central  Park  Garden  are  well  known. 
A  particular  object  of  her  regard  has  been  the  birds,  and  a 
number  of  Audubon  Societies  have  benefited.  As  Vice- 
President  of  the  Audubon  Society  of  California,  I  received 
a  sum  from  her  in  1909  which  enabled  the  Society  to  send  a 
lecturer  into  the  schools  of  the  state  to  educate  the  coming 
citizens  on  the  economic  value  of  birds.  Her  greatest  work 
in  this  direction  was  the  purchase  of  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
Louisiana  in  1912,  to  be  used  in  perpetuity  as  a  bird  pre- 
serve. No  one  who  has  not  witnessed  the  wanton  destruc- 
tion of  birds  in  the  Gulf  states  can  appreciate  what  this 
means.  Mrs.  Sage's  gift  means  that  the  extinction  of  many 
birds  is  prevented,  as  without  some  refuge  where  birds  can 
breed  without  interruption  thousands  will  be  slaughtered 
and  the  end  soon  come. 


340     QUAKER  INFLUENCE  IN  AMERICA 


It  is  by  such  gifts  as  these  that  the  subject  of  this  chapter 
has  received  that  which  is  beyond  price,  and  which  cannot 
be  bought — the  love,  affection  and  profound  respect  of  a 
great  nation. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


THE  PURITAN  INTOLERANTS. 

In  that  portion  of  the  Journal  of  George  Fox  relating  to 
the  year  1655,  he  writes,  "About  this  time  several  Friends 
went  beyond  sea,  to  declare  the  everlasting  truth  of  God." 
The  Friends  referred  to  were  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann  Austin, 
who  reached  the  island  of  Barbadoes  in  that  year,  this  port 
being  at  the  time  one  of  the  most  convenient  points 
from  which  to  reach  the  American  continent.  Mary  Fisher 
had  been  a  minister  since  1652,  and  had  suffered  much,  hav- 
ing been  confined  in  York  Castle  for  nearly  two  years.  She 
was  one  of  the  Friends  who  undertook  to  preach  at  Cam- 
bridge University,  but  on  the  order  of  the  Mayor  was,  with 
others,  "whipped  at  the  Market  Cross  till  the  blood  ran 
down  their  bodies."  While  suffering  this  terrible  punish- 
ment in  public,  Mary  Fisher  was  engaged  in  praying  for  her 
tormentors  and  asking  forgiveness  for  them,  much  after  the 
manner  of  the  early  Americans  when  they  were  burnt  at  the 
stake  by  the  natives.  Possessed  of  such  an  heroic  character, 
*  Mary  Fisher  and  her  companion,  Ann  Austin,  who  was  the 
mother  of  five  children,  were  well  calculated  to  assail  the 
Puritans  in  their  stronghold;  and  in  1656  they  landed  in 
Boston,  being  passengers  from  Barbados  on  the  ship  "Swal- 
low," Simon  Kemp  thorn,  captain. 

The  appearance  of  two  Quakers  in  the  harbor  of  the 
Puritan  colony  occasioned  something  in  the  nature  of  a 
panic,  and  the  officials  decided  to  stop  the  movement  then 
and  there. 


342        THE  PURITAN  INTOLERANTS 


Deputy  Governor  Richard  Bellingham  gave  orders  that 
they  should  not  be  allowed  to  land.  Their  effects  were 
searched  and  about  one  hundred  Quaker  books  and  pamph- 
lets found,  all  of  which  were  publicly  burned  at  the  market 
place  by  the  hangman,  despite  the  fact  that  Nicholas  Up- 
sall,  an  influential  Puritan,  attempted  to  buy  them  and  of- 
fered five  pounds  for  the  privilege  of  speaking  to  the 
women.  The  case  having  been  decided  against  them  on  the 
charge  of  being  Quakers,  the  two  women  were  brought 
ashore  and  committed  to  jail;  deprived  of  all  rights,  strip- 
ped naked  and  searched  for  signs  of  witchcraft.  Even  the 
windows  of  their  cell  were  boarded  up,  and  a  fine  of  five 
pounds  established  for  the  benefit  of  anyone  who  should 
have  the  temerity  to  speak  to  them. 

After  five  weeks  of  this,  the  captain  of  a  Barbados  ship 
was  put  under  bonds  to  deliver  them  at  that  port,  and  to  al- 
low no  one  to  communicate  with  them.  This  was  carried 
out,  and  so  ended  the  first  attempt  of  Quakers  to  land  on 
American  shores.  The  jailer  took  their  Bibles  and  bedding 
in  lieu  of  his  fees,  and  Governor  Endicott  expressed  his  re- 
gret not  having  been  in  Boston  at  the  time,  as  he  should 
have  given  them  a  ''whipping."  The  ship  sailed  for  Barba- 
dos August  5th,  and  must  have  passed  the  "Speedwell," 
bound  in  from  England,  as  she  arrived  on  the  7th  of  August, 
1656,  with  a  party  of  Friends  under  the  leadership  of 
Christopher  Holder  of  Alveston,  a  rich  young  Englishman, 
who,  it  is  believed,  was  a  large  contributor  to  the  expense 
fund  of  the  expedition.  His  companions  were  John  Cope- 
land,  Thomas  Thurston,  William  Brend,  Mary  Price,  Sarah 
Gibbons,  Mary  Weatherhead  and  Dorothy  Waugh.  Eleven 
weeks  in  jail,  confiscation  of  property  and  return  to  England 


THE  PURITAN   INTOLERANTS  343 


was  their  fate  at  the  hands  of  the  Puritans ;  and  as  it  is  pop- 
ularly supposed  that  the  latter  sought  the  shores  of  America 
to  enjoy  ^religious  liberty  and  freedom,  it  may  be  germain  to 
the  subject  to  glance  at  these  dominant  Englishmen,  who 
were  honestly  panic-stricken  by  the  appearance  of  a  few 
men  and  women,  whose  message  was  so  evidently  peace  and 
good  will  to  men. 

In  the  early  Virginian  settlement  of  Englishmen  in  Amer- 
ica it  was  understood  that  the  religion  of  the  settlers  should 
be  that  of  the  Church  of  England;  but  the  rules  were  lax 
and  the  real  attraction  of  New  England  to  the  Puritans  was 
the  possibility  of  religious  life  free  from  the  supervision  or 
jurisdiction  of  the  king.  In  1643,  thirteen  years  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Quakers,  Sir  William  Berkeley  enacted  laws 
to  the  effect  that  all  religious  instruction  should  be  in  con- 
formity with  the  rules  of  the  Church  of  England.  This 
was  followed  by  the  banishment  of  the  non-conformists. 

*It  should  be  remembered  that  the  elastic  term  "religious  liberty," 
used  by  the  Puritans  in  the  seventeenth  century,  had  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent interpretation  than  it  has  to-day.  What  the  Puritans  meant 
was,  not  that  they  desired  to  invite  all  religious  sects  to  come  and 
abide  with  them  with  equal  liberty  of  conscience  after  the  later  Penn 
fashion;  far  from  it.  Their  idea  of  liberty  was  to  establish  themselves 
so  far  from  the  Stuart  king  that  they  could  live  the  religion  they 
brought  with  them  in  peace  and  quiet.  It  is  true  the  contrary  is  the 
popular  belief,  and  it  is  true  that  the  actual  facts  are  that  they  came 
over  to  establish  a  theocratic  state,  where  they  could  establish  their 
own  religion,  a  rational  one  for  the  time,  and  live  it. 

The  coming  of  the  Quakers  forced  them  against  their  will  to  throw 
open  America  to  true  religious  liberty,  as  we  have  and  understand  it 
to-day.  If  Winthrop  and  his  followers  had  been  able  to  look  ahead 
and  see  the  "religious  liberty"  the  Quakers  were  to  force  on  them, 
they,  in  all  probability,  would  have  remained  in  England  and  fought 
their  ethical  and  other  battles  in  their  own  land.  This  in  justice  to 
the  Puritans. 


344        THE  PURITAN  INTOLERANTS 


Then  came  more  liberty  under  the  Protectorate;  and  then 
began  a  Puritan  migration  to  America  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  seeking  liberty  of  conscience,  as  they  understood  it. 
The  Puritans  were  made  up  of  all  sects,  men  and  women 
who  desired  peace  and  religious  liberty,  and  the  Puritan 
movement  to  America  became  of  paramount  importance. 
Non-conformists  who  had  fled  to  Holland  to  escape  perse- 
cution, Englishmen  who  resented  the  display  of  pomp  and 
splendor  of  the  church,  its  power  and  political  influence, 
men  and  women  who  were  anti-Papists  and  others  all  joined 
the  movement,  became  Pilgrims  and  decided  to  sail  for 
America. 

An  application  for  land  had  been  made  to  King  James; 
and  while  he  refused  to  ignore  the  question  of  religion,  he 
disposed  of  it  diplomatically  by  saying  to  those  who  de- 
manded the  right  to  free  religion,  "If  they  demeaned  them- 
selves quietly,  no  inquiry  would  be  made."  This  was  held 
to  be  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  Puritans,  and  in  1620 
about  one  hundred  persons,  to  be  known  later  as  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  landed  at  Cape  Cod,  after  a  voyage  across  the  At- 
lantic of  two  months  or  fifty-six  days. 

Eight  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  "May  Flower"  with 
Miles  Standish  and  his  friends,  John  Endicott  arrived  on 
the  coast  in  the  ship  "Abagail."  He  had  been  an  officer  in 
the  army;  was  a  man  of  vigor,  a  severe  disciplinarian,  with  a 
love  of  adventure,  and  was  selected  to  head  the  party  which 
was  to  represent  a  new  colony  of  Puritans  and  to  keep  clear 
of  the  separatists  of  the  Plymouth  colony  and  various  other 
settlements  and  grants  which  had  been  made  by  the  Crown 
with  more  or  less  carelessness.  In  1628  a  tract  of  land  was 
obtained  from  the  New  England  Council  ranging  from  three 


THE   PURITAN   INTOLERANTS  345 


miles  north  of  the  Charles  River,  Boston,  to  three  miles 
north  of  the  Merrimac.  This  was  the  width  of  the  grant, 
but  the  length  was  another  matter.  It  included  the  present 
seaboard  of  Charlestown,  Nahant,  Lynn,  Salem,  etc.,  west  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  taking  in  Cape  Blanco  and  the  adjacent 
California  coast  almost  reaching  to  Salem,  Oregon,  not  to 
speak  of  a  part  of  Oregon,  Nevada,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Illinois, 
New  York  and  all  the  intervening  land  and  later  states — a 
noble  grant,  though  it  must  be  explained  that  the  English 
supposed  the  Pacific  coast  to  be  somewhere  west  of  where 
New  York  is  at  present.  The  entire  region,  two  hundred 
and  eighty-four  years  ago  was  absolutely  unknown. 

This  territory  was  granted  to  six  gentlemen  representing 
the  Puritans  of  whom  John  Endicott  was  one,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  to  point  out  that  it  conflicted  with  the  Gorges, 
Mason  and  several  other  grants.  Colonial  history  is  filled 
with  the  contests  of  the  Gorges  and  others,  but  the  fact  re- 
mains that  Endicott  and  a  party  of  sixty  men  in  September 
1628,  made  their  headquarters  at  a  point  they  named  Salem, 
in  token  of  their  peaceful  settlement  with  other  claimants. 
It  would  seem  that  one  object  was  the  establishment  of  a 
trading  company.  The  original  object  appears  to  have 
been  to  give  the  Puritans  a  base  in  the  New  World,  while 
others  again  thought  that  the  main  object  was  to  convert  the 
savages.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Endicott  proved  to  be  an  ideal 
pioneer.  He  cleared  the  land,  leveled  the  forests,  estab- 
lished himself  and  his  backers,  and  in  March  1629  a  royal 
charter  was  secured  and  a  corporation  formed,  known  as  the 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  officers  were  a  governor,  deputy,  and  a  council 
of  eighteen  assistants  who  were  elected  annually  by  the 


346        THE  PURITAN  INTOLERANTS 


Company.  They  made  the  laws  so  long  as  they  did  not  in- 
terfere with  England.  No  mention  was  made  of  religious 
liberty,  and  the  Puritans  were  free  to  make  such  laws  and 
regulations  as  suited  themselves.  It  was  a  popular  delus- 
ion that  they  established  a  colony  which  was  to  have  abso- 
lute religious  liberty.  The  toleration  of  the  colony  was  the 
Puritan  definition  of  freedom  of  conscience,  something 
very  different  from  that  announced  by  William  Penn  when 
he  founded  Pennsylvania  and  threw  open  the  doors  of  the 
colony  to  Jew  and  Gentile,  Baptist,  Quaker,  Presbyterian, 
Papist  or  Church  of  England,  assuring  full  rights  and  justice 
to  all  so  long  as  they  obeyed  the  laws. 

It  is  only  right  to  say  that  had  Endicott  and  his  friends 
demanded  the  inclusion  of  a  clause  assuring  religious  lib- 
erty to  all  in  the  new  charter,  the  Crown  would  have  refused 
it..  But  the  guarantees  did  not  ask  for  it  and  did  not  desire 
it.  Ships  and  immigrants  now  sailed  from  England,  Endi- 
cott became  governor,  and  a  great  exodus  to  the  colony 
began. 

In  1630  a  fleet  of  eleven  ships  and  fifteen  hundred  Puri- 
tans arrived  in  America,  and  with  them  the  entire  Company 
with  its  court  and  charter.  Endicott,  who  had  done  yoe- 
man's  service,  was  now  superceded  by  John  Winthrop  as 
governor — and  retired  to  his  Orchard  Farm  near  Salem.  In 
1649  John  Wintrop  died,  and  John  Endicott  again  became 
governor — an  office  he  held  for  thirteen  years.  He  was  an 
intolerant  of  the  intolerants,  and  the  rumors  which  for  some 
time  had  reached  the  colony  about  the  Quakers  and  their 
doctrine  of  an  inner  light,  filled  him  with  disgust.  John 
Norton,  a  religious  fanatic,  possessed  of  a  "morbid  fear  of 
Satan,"  had  taken  Cotton's  place,  and  did  not  fail  to  assure 


THE  PURITAN   INTOLERANTS  347 


Endicott  that  the  Quakers  were  in  league  with  the  Evil  One 
and  were  dangerous  infidels.  Cotton  Mather  added  his 
testimony  that  the  Quakers  were  in  the  habit  of  referring  to 
the  Bible  as  the  "word  of  the  devil." 

With  these  and  other  charges  the  enemies  of  the  Quakers 
filled  the  minds  of  the  Puritans  until  many  honestly  believed 
that  the  Quakers  were  a  dangerous  menace,  and  prayed 
that  they  would  be  delivered  from  them  as  they  had  been 
from  witches.  In  a  word,  Governor  Endicott  was  not  a 
tyrant.  He  was  a  valuable  man  to  the  new  colony,  but  he 
conscientiously  believed  that  the  Quakers  were  a  thinly- 
veiled  disaster,  a  menace  to  the  colony — a  frame  of  mind 
which  explains  his  future  action. 

Such  was  the  situation  in  Massachusetts  Colony  when  the 
first  Quakers  entered  it.  Some  of  them  thought  they  were 
going  to  a  land  of  freedom  .when  the  truth  was,  the  colony 
was  for  the  Puritans  and  no  one  else,  so  far  as  religion  and 
Calvinism  was  concerned. 

Captain  Miles  Standish  was  a  dominant  factor  in  this 
party  which  in  a  few  days  again  landed  at  a  point  they 
named  Plymouth.  The  struggles  and  privations  of  these 
heroic  men  and  women  are  well  known  facts  of  history. 
They  were  decimated  by  disease  and  by  the  Indians,  who 
resented  the  invasion.  The  colony  grew  very  slowly  and 
when  ten  years  had  passed,  there  were  but  three  hundred 
Separatists  or  Puritans  in  the  Colony  of  New  England. 
Among  the  early  trials  was  the  persistency  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  of  England  to  control  the  colony,  and  dominate 
its  religious  policy.  The  Reformation  was  a  wonderful  up- 
rismg  for  good  in  England ;  but  the  Puritan  movement  was 
evidence  that  it  did  not  result  in  the  complete  toleration 


348        THE   PURITAN  INTOLERANTS 


looked  for;  hence  most  of  the  emigrants  who  became  Puri- 
tans were  non-conformists,  seeking  complete  freedom  from 
intolerance;  a  fact  which  makes  their  attitude  to  the  Quak- 
ers in  1656  and  later,  one  of  the  extraordinary  phases  of 
modem  Christianity. 

As  the  Plymouth  colony  increased  in  size  and  wealth,  the 
influence  of  the  established  Church  became  more  insistent 
and  pronounced.  Bishop  Laud  was  among  the  leaders  as  a 
protagonist  of  the  prmciple  that  religious  freedom  in  the 
colony  was  but  the  establishment  of  a  dangerous  precedent. 
I  have  dwelt  upon  this  to  illustrate  the  curious  phase  of 
doctrinal  Christianity, — that  a  people  striving  to  throw  off 
an  incubus  deliberately  refused  to  others  the  very  charity  or 
freedom  they  had  demanded  for  years. 

This  Colonial  Dissenter  movement  was  at  first  favored  by 
the  government;  it  was  well  to  get  rid  of  these  seventeenth 
century  "cranks"  and  insurgents;  but  when  the  mother 
country  was  evidently  threatened  with  depletion,  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  stop  it. 

Oliver  Cromwell  had  decided  to  go  to  America,  and  it 
so  happened  that  he  embarked  upon  the  first  vessel  to  come 
within  the  ban  of  church  and  government.  At  one  time 
eight  ships  filled  with  passengers,  were  lying  in  the  Thames 
ready  to  sail  when  the  order  was  given  by  the  government 
to  stop  them;  and  with  others,  Cromwell  was  forced  to  re- 
linquish his  purpose  and  go  ashore.  This  prohibition  was 
but  temporary^  and  within  the  next  few  years  fifteen  or 
twenty  thousand  English  men  and  women  Puritans  found 
their  way  to  America,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  reaching 
a  land  where  they  could  enjoy  religious  non-interference,  if 
not  political  liberty.    That  they  accomplished  this  desider- 


THE   PURITAN   INTOLERANTS  349 


atum  is  well  known,  and  so  far  as  religion  was  concerned 
they  were  practically  undisturbed. 

The  natural  sequence  of  such  a  consummation  would  be  the 
establishment  of  the  great  principle  of  religious  toleration, 
which  is  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  American  Constitution  to- 
day; but  apparently  this  idea  did  not  occur  to  them.  They 
denounced  Roman  Apostacy,  reviled  the  Church  of  England 
and  its  rites  as  remnants  of  Papacy,  and  established  in  the 
wilderness  of  America  a  system  of  non-conformist  intoler- 
ance without  equal  in  the  history  of  the  formative  period  of 
any  nation.  Not  only  this,  they  determined  to  resist  to  the 
bitter  end  any  attempt  to  introduce  any  other  belief  on  the 
ground  that  the  imposition  of  ''the  common  prayer  worship" 
and  other  devices  of  the  enemy,  which  they  had  left  their 
homes  to  avoid,  "would  be  a  sinful  violation  of  the  worship 
of  God."  It  appears  that  all  the  great  religious  reforma- 
tions of  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
were  handicapped  or  burdened  by  singular  conditions  that 
practically  rendered  them  partly  inoperative. 

The  Quakers  weakened  the  force  of  their  great  message  to 
the  world  by  non-essentials,  childish  in  their  character, — as 
the  wearing  of  hats  and  insistent  use  of  'thee'  and  'thou;' 
while  the  Puritans,  numbering  among  their  body  politic 
some  of  the  finest  men  of  the  kingdom,  the  elements  of  a 
great  and  powerful  nation,  deliberately  shut  their  eyes  to 
the  very  principle  of  civic  justice  and  righteousness  they  had 
claimed  for  themselves,  raised  aloft  a  banner  of  rank  intol- 
erance, and  under  the  cry  of  'New  England  for  the  Puri- 
tans,' built  about  themselves  a  wall  of  egotism  and  pedantry, 
and  prepared  to  repel  all  alein  sectarian  assaults.  This 
monumental  bigotry  found  its  first  expression  in  the  ship- 


350        THE   PURITAN  INTOLERANTS 


ping  back  to  England  of  two  members  of  the  expedition  of 
1629,  who  had  been  appointed  members  of  the  Colonial 
Council.  When  it  was  discovered  that  the  two  unfortu- 
nates were  Episcopalians  they  were  arrested  as  spies, 
and  sent  to  England  in  the  first  ship,  their  particular  crime 
being  that  they  had  attempted  to  establish  in  this  free  land, 
and  specifically  in  Salem,  a  church  of  their  own  belief. 

John  Fiske  in  his  "Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies"  thus  de- 
fines the  doctrinal  difference  between  the  religions  of  the 
Quaker  and  the  Puritan:  "The  ideal  of  the  Quakers  was 
flatly  antagonistic  to  that  of  the  settlers  of  Massachusetts. 
The  Christianity  of  the  former  was  freed  from  Judaism  as 
far  as  was  possible;  the  Christianity  of  the  latter  was  heav- 
ily encumxbered  with  Judaism.  The  Quaker  aimed  at  com- 
plete separation  between  Church  and  State;  the  government 
of  Massachusetts  was  patterned  after  the  ancient  Jewish 
theocracy  in  which  church  and  state  were  identified.  The 
Quaker  was  tolerant  of  differences  in  doctrine;  the  Calvin- 
ist  regarded  such  tolerance  as  a  deadly  sin.  For  these 
reasons  the  arrival  of  a  few  Quakers  in  Boston  in  1656  was 
considered  an  act  of  invasion  and  treated  as  such."  Such, 
very  briefly  described,  was  the  situation  in  New  England 
when  the  Quakers  arrived  in  1655-6.  The  Puritans  were 
not  taken  by  surprise.  They  had  been  warned  and  were 
cognizant  of  the  campaign  of  George  Fox  in  England,  and 
as  but  one  side  of  the  history  reached  them,  a  Quaker  was 
looked  upon  with  horror,  and  as  a  menace  to  the  new  com- 
munities and  settlements,  a  something  to  be  kept  out  at  all 
hazards,  if  the  morals  of  the  colony  were  to  be  preserved  in- 
tact and  inviolate.  While  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann  Austin 
brought  the  first  Quaker  documents  to  the  colony,  anti- 


r 


THE  PURITAN   INTOLERANTS  351 


Quaker  pamphlets  had  been  freely  circulated,  and  the  public 
mind  poisoned  deeply  and  irrevocably.  The  Puritans  saw 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  in  every  suspect.  Some  of  the  liter- 
ary assaults  against  the  Quakers  were  remarkable  in  their 
ingenuity,  and  nearly  all  were  written  by  distinguished  non- 
conformists, many  of  New  England,  who  really  knew  noth- 
ing of  George  Fox  or  of  Quakerism.  A  typical  pamphlet 
was  by  Francis  Higginson.  It  was  entitled,  "A  Brief  Re- 
lation of  the  Irreligion  of  the  Northern  Quakers,  1653." 
Thomas  Welde,  who  aided  in  the  heresy  trials  of  Anne 
Hutchinson,  was  the  author  of  "The  Perfect  Pharisee  under 
Monkish  Holiness,"  also,  "A  Further  Discovery  of  that 
Generation  of  men  called  Quakers,"  1654.  These  pamph- 
lets as  well  as  the  replies  are  among  the  literary  curiosities  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  an  illustration  of  the  latter  is 
given  in  the  appendix,  by  Christopher  Holder. 

As  though  to  quicken  the  terror  of  the  Puritans,  they  had 
just  emerged  from  all  the  horrors  of  witch  craft,  the  sister 
of  Deputy  Governor  Bellingham  having  been  executed  as  a 
witch  but  two  years  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Mary  Fisher 
and  Ann  Austin  who  would  have  been  burned  with  their 
books  had  the  gross  and  significant  examination  of  their 
naked  bodies  by  the  authorities  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
any  "signs"  of  a  witch.  Such  was  the  situation  in  New 
England  when  the  "Woodhouse"  with  Christopher  Holder 
and  his  friends  and  fellow  Quakers  sailed  toward  the  coast 
of  New  England  in  1656.  The  Puritans  believed  them  to 
be  a  menace  to  the  salvation  of  mankind,  and  the  inoffensive 
followers  of  George  Fox  were  feared  and  dreaded  as  a  pesti- 
lence, or  as  would  have  been  a  mad  dog  running  amuck  in  a 
defenseless  community. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA. 

Cromwell  was  the  uncrowned  king  of  Great  Britain  when 
the  first  Quakers  landed  in  America.  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann 
Austin,  as  we  have  seen,  were  carried  from  their  ship  to  the 
jail,  and  later  re-shipped  to  Barbadoes.  The  first  direct 
expedition  of  a  body  of  Quakers  sailed  into  Massachusetts 
Bay  the  9th  of  August,  1656.  A  facsimile  of  the  ship- 
ping list  in  the  possession  of  the  author  shows  the  following 
)  names  as  passengers  on  the  "Speedwell" : 


Name 

Residence 

Age 

Christopher  Holder,  Q 

"¥"¥7'  1 

Wmterbourne 

25 

(9 

miles  from  Bristol) 

William  Brend  "Q" 

London 

40 

John  Copeland  "Q" 

Holderness 

28 

Thomas  Thurston  "Q" 

London 

34 

Mary  Prince  "Q" 

Bristol 

21 

Sarah  Gibbons,  "Q" 

Bristol 

21 

Mary  Weatherhead  "Q" 

Bristol 

26 

Dorothy  Waugh  "Q" 

London 

20 

John  Mulford 

43 

Richard  Smith 

4 

Francis  Brusley 

22 

Thomas  Noyce 

32 

Martha  Edwards 

Joseph  Bowles 

47 

Lester  Smith 

24 

C.  Clarke 

38 

Edward  Lane 

36 

THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  353 


Name                                 Residence  Age 

Theo.  Richardson  19 

John  Earle  i? 

Thomas  Barnes  20 

Shadrack  Hopgood  14 

Thomas  Goodnough  20 

Nathaniel  Goodnough  16 

John  Fay  8 

William  Taylor  11 

Richard  Smith  28 

Muhulett  Munnings  24 

Margaret  Mott  12 

Henry  Reeve  8 

Henry  Seker  8 

John  Morse  40 

Nicholas  Danison  45 

John  Baldwin  21 

Rebecca  Worster  18 

Mary  Baldwin  20 

John  Wigins  15 

John  Miller  24 

Thomas  Howe  4 

John  Crane  11 

Charles  Baalam  18 


The  "Q"  after  the  first  eight  names  suggests  that  some 

official  indicated  them  as  Quakers,  perhaps  was  forced  to  do 

so  for  the  benefit  of  some  of  the  authorities  to  whom  he  was 

obliged  to  report  the  character  of  emigrants.    As  soon  as 

it  became  known  that  eight  Quakers  were  in  the  harbor,  a 

panic  seized  the  Puritans;  and  according   to  Neal,  the 

Historian,  the  Puritan  magistrate  took  alarm  as  if  the  town 
23 


354    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


was  threatened  with  some  imminent  danger."  A  special 
council  was  convened  by  Governor  Sir  John  Endicott,  and 
the  trials  and  tribulations  of  the  New  England  Quakers 
began. 

The  Council  issued  orders  to  search  the  boxes  of  the  Quak- 
ers for  "hellish  pamphlets  and  erroneous  books,"  and  to  ar- 
rest and  bring  them  into  court.  This  was  accomplished 
the  eight  men  and  women  being  marched  through  a  jeering, 
threatening  crowd  of  superstitious  citizens,  not  naturally 
vicious,  but  narrow  as  one  could  imagine ;  a  people,  many  of 
whom  had  accepted  witchcraft,  and  but  recently  passed 
through  all  the  horrors  of  this  strange  and  seemingly  impos- 
sible delusion.  The  Quakers  were  marched  into  court, 
where  they  were  examined  as  to  their  religious  beliefs  by 
Deputy  Governor  Bellinghamx,  whose  sister  but  two  years 
previous  had  been  executed  as  a  witch,  and  several  priests 
who  had  just  officiated  at  the  burning  of  the  Quaker  pamph- 
lets and  books  in  the  public  market. 

The  examination  resulted  somewhat  disastrously  to  the 
Puritans,  and  the  Quakers  took  advantage  of  it  to  expound 
their  doctrines  to  the  listeners.  They  made  such  progress, 
showing  such  complete  familiarity  with  the  Bible,  that  even 
the  magistrate  grew  impatient,  and  asked  one  of  the  non- 
plused priests,  "What  is  the  difference  between  you  and  the 
Quakers?"  It  was  too  fine  a  point  for  magistrate  or  priest, 
and,  with  the  admonition  from  Governor  Endicott,  "Take 
care  that  you  do  not  break  our  ecclesiastical  laws,  for  then 
you  are  sure  to  stretch  by  a  halter,"  the  Quakers  were  sent 
to  jail  and  kept  there  for  two  months  and  a  half.  During 
this  time  various  laws  were  enacted  against  them  on  the 
other  hand  and  many  sympathizers  created,  as  the  various 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  355 


examinations  of  the  terrible  Quakers  had  demonstrated,  to 
the  more  intelligent  portion  of  the  community,  that  they 
were  a  very  harmless  and  spiritual-minded  people,  who 
should  be  treated  with  respect. 

John  Copeland  and  Christopher  Holder  made  an  immed- 
iate demand  for  release  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  law 
for  their  retention;  but  the  jailer  showed  them  his  orders: 

"You  are  by  virtue  hereof  ordered  to  keep  the  Quakers 
formerly  committed  to  your  custody  as  dangerous  persons 
industrious  to  improve  all  their  abilities  to  secure  the  peo- 
ple of  this  jurisdiction  both  by  words  and  letters,  to  the 
abominable  tenets  of  the  Quakers  and  to  keep  them  close 
prisoners,  not  suffering  them  to  speak  or  confer  with  any 
person,  not  permitting  them  to  have  paper  or  ink. 

Edward  Rawson, 

Secretary." 

Aug.  18,  1656. 
Boston.'' 

Endicott  well  knew  that  he  was  acting  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility; but  as  the  authorities  had  displayed  some  friend- 
ship for  certain  Quakers,  he  convened  the  council  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment,  and  secured  the  passage  of  the 
first  anti-Quaker  law  in  America.  This  was  preceded  by  a 
letter  addressed  to  "The  commissions  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces," who  were  about  to  meet  in  Plymouth,  in  which  End- 
icott recommended,  "that  some  general  rules  may  be  com- 
mended to  each  general  court  to  prevent  the  coming  in 
amongst  us  from  foreign  places  such  notorious  heretiques 
as  Quakers  , Ranters,  etc."  This  resultant  law  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

"At  a  General  Court  held  at  Boston  the  14th  of  October, 
1656. 


356   THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


"Whereas,  there  is  a  cursed  sect  of  heretics  lately  risen 
up  in  the  world,  which  are  commonly  called  Quakers,  who 
take  upon  them  to  be  immediately  sent  of  God,  and  infal- 
libly assisted  by  the  Spirit,  to  speak  and  write  blasphem- 
ous opinions,  despising  government,  and  the  order  of  God  in 
the  church  and  commonwealth,  speaking  evil  of  dignities, 
reproaching  and  reviling  magistrates  and  ministers,  seeking 
to  turn  the  people  from  the  faith,  and  gain  proselytes  to 
their  pernicious  ways.  This  court,  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  premises,  and  to  prevent  the  like  mischief,  as  by 
their  means  is  wrought  in  our  land,  doth  hereby  order,  and 
by  authority  of  this  court  ,be  it  ordered  and  enacted,  that 
what  master,  or  commander  of  any  ship,  bark,  pink,  or 
ketch,  shall  henceforth  bring  into  any  harbor,  creek  or  cove, 
within  this  jurisdiction,  any  Quaker  or  Quakers,  or  other 
blasphemous  heretics  , shall  pay  or  cause  to  be  paid,  the  fine 
of  one  hundred  pounds  to  the  treasurer  of  the  country,  ex- 
cept it  appear  he  want  true  knowledge  or  information  of 
their  being  such,  and  in  that  case  he  hath  liberty  to  clear 
himself  by  his  oath,  when  sufficient  proof  to  the  contrary  is 
wanting;  and  for  default  of  good  payment,  or  good  security 
for  it,  shall  be  cast  into  prison,  and  there  to  continue  till  the 
said  sum  be  satisfied  to  the  Treasurer  as  aforesaid.  And 
the  commander  of  any  ketch,  ship  or  vessel,  being  legally 
convicted,  shall  give  in  sufficient  security  to  the  governor, 
or  any  one  or  more  of  the  magistrates,  who  have  power  to 
determine  the  same,  to  carry  them  back  to  the  place  when  he 
brought  them,  and  on  his  refusal  so  to  do,  the  governor,  or 
one  or  more  of  the  magistrates,  are  hereby  empowered  to  is- 
sue out  his  or  their  warrants,  to  commit  such  master  or  com- 
mander to  prison,  there  to  continue  till  he  give  in  sufficient 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  357 


security  to  the  content  of  the  governor,  or  any  of  the  magis- 
trates aforesaid.  And  it  is  hereby  further  ordered  and  en- 
acted, that  what  Quaker  soever  shall  arrive  in  this  country 
from  foreign  parts,  or  shall  come  into  this  jurisdiction  from 
any  parts  adjacent,  shall  be  forthwith  committed  to  the 
house  of  correction,  and,  at  their  entrance,  to  be  severely 
whipped  and  by  the  master  thereof  to  be  kept  constantly  to 
work  and  none  suffered  to  converse  or  speak  with  them  dur- 
ing the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  which  shall  be  no  longer 
than  necessity  requires.  And  it  is  ordered.  If  any  person  shall 
knowingly  import  into  any  harbour  of  this  jurisdiction  any 
Quaker  books  or  writings  concerning  their  devilish  opin- 
ions, shall  pay  for  such  book  or  writings,  being  legally  prov- 
ed against  him  or  them,  the  sum  of  five  pounds ;  and  whoso- 
ever shall  disperse  or  conceal  any  such  book  or  writing,  and 
it  be  found  with  him  or  her  ,or  in  his  or  her  house,  and  shall 
not  immediately  deliver  the  same  to  the  next  magistrate, 
shall  forfeit  or  pay  five  pounds  for  the  dispersing  or  conceal- 
ing of  every  s\ich  book  or  writing.  And  it  is  hereby  further 
enacted,  That  if  any  person  within  this  colony  shall  take 
upon  them  to  defend  the  heretical  opinions  of  the  Quakers, 
or  any  of  their  books  or  papers  as  aforesaid,  if  legally  prov- 
ed, shall  be  fined  for  the  first  time  forty  shillings;  if  they 
shall  persist  in  the  same,  and  shall  again  defend  it  the 
second  time,  four  pounds;  if,  notwithstanding,  they  shall 
again  defend  and  maintain  the  said  Quakers'  heretical  opin- 
ions, they  shall  be  committed  to  the  house  of  correction  till 
there  be  convenient  passage  to  send  them  out  of  the  land, 
being  sentenced  by  the  court  of  assistants  to  banishment. 
Lastly,  it  is  hereby  ordered.  That  what  person  or  persons 
soever  shall  revile  the  persons  of  magistrates  or  ministers. 


358    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


As  is  usual  with  the  Quakers,  such  person  or  persons  shall 
be  severely  whipped,  or  pay  the  sum  of  five  pounds. 
This  is  a  true  copy  of  the  court's  order,  as  attests, 

Edward  Rawson,  Secretary." 

To  emphasize  the  passage  of  this  law,  and  render  the 
position  of  the  prisoners  as  disagreeable  as  possible,  the  cry- 
er  proceeded  through  the  streets,  led  by  a  drum  corps,  and 
on  the  corners  read  the  new  law.  As  he  reached  the  home  of 
one  Nicholas  Upsall,  the  owner  came  out,  and  denounced 
it  as  an  outrage.  It  was  the  same  Upsall  who  endeavored 
to  buy  the  books  of  the  Quakers  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann 
Austin,  and  offered  five  pounds  for  the  privilege  of  speaking 
to  them.  It  was  he  who  gave  the  jailer  five  schillings  a  week 
that  he  might  provide  the  prisoners  with  food  during  their 
imprisonment.  For  this  display  of  sympathy  Upsall  was 
taken  before  the  magistrate,  fined  and  banished  from  the 
colony.  He  made  his  way  to  Rhode  Island  and  later 
joined  the  Quakers. 

The  Quakers  in  jail  aroused  much  sympathy.  Among 
their  friends  was  Samuel  Gorton,  who  had  been  banished 
from  the  Colony,  and  who  now  wrote  the  Quakers  from 
Warwick,  Rhode  Island,  offering  them  a  shelter  if  they 
could  escape.  Gorton's  plan  was  to  have  them  sail  for 
England,  as  though  obeying  the  order  of  the  court;  but 
once  outside  the  Cape  the  "Speedwell"  was  to  be  met  by  a 
vessel  provided  by  Gorton,  the  Quakers  transferred  and  tak- 
en to  Rhode  Island.  The  correspondence  for  which  I  am 
indebted  to  Norman  Penny,  is  as  follows : 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  359 


"Correspondence  of  Christopher  Holder  and  Others,  Re- 
lating to  Gorton's  Plan  of  Escape  from  Endicott's 
Order  of  Banishment." 
"Extracts  from  the  Appendix  to  Samuel  Gorton's  "Anti- 
dote against  the  Common  Plague  of  the  World."  London, 
1657.  4  to.  Certain  copies  of  letters  which  passed  be- 
twixt the  Penman  of  this  Treatise  and  certain  men  newly 
come  out  of  Old  England  into  New;  who  when  they  were 
arrived  at  Boston  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  Governor 
being  informed  they  were  such  as  are  called  Quakers,  he  sent 
Officers  to  fetch  them  ashore,  and  being  forthwith  brought 
into  examination  what  their  business  was  into  these  parts 
they  answered.  To  Spread  the  Gospel,  and  to  do  the  work 
of  the  Lord,  whereupon  they  were  all  committed  to  prison 
both  men  and  w^omen,  there  to  remain  till  the  return  of  the 
Ships,  and  then  to  be  carried  back  into  England,  the  Master 
being  bound  in  £500,  with  others  for  security  with  him  to 
set  them  ashore  in  England  againe,  and  that  upon  his  own 
cost  and  charge  lest  the  purity  of  the  Religion  professed  in 
the  churches  of  New  England  should  be  defiled  with  Errour. 

(Barwick)  Warwick,  September  16,  1656. 

The  Superscription. 
To  the  Strangers  and  out-casts,  with  respect  to  carnall 
Esrael,  now  in  prison  at  Boston  for  the  name  of  Christ,  these 
with  trust  present  in  Massachusetts,  New  England. 

Christian  Friends, 

The  report  of  your  demeanor,  with  some  others  of 
the  same  mind  with  you  formerly  put  in  possession  of  the 
place  of  your  present  aboad,  as  is  reported  to  us,  as  also  the 
errand  you  professe  you  come  with  into  these  parts,  hath 


36o    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


much  taken  my  heart  so  that  I  cannot  withhold  my  hand 
from  expressing  its  desires  after  you;  which  present  habita- 
tion of  yours,  our  selves  have  had  a  proof  of  from  life 
grounds  and  reasons,  that  have  possessed  you  thereof,  under 
which  in  some  measure  we  still  remain  in  point  of  banish- 
ment, under  pain  of  death,  out  of  these  parts,  a  prohibition 
from  that  liberty,  which  no  Christian  ought  to  be  infringed 
of.  And  though  we  have  a  larger  room  in  bodily  respects, 
than  for  present  your  selves  have,  yet  we  desire  to  see  the 
prison  doors  open  before  we  attem.pt  to  go  out,  either  by 
force  or  stealth,  or  by  entreaty,  which  we  doubt  not  but  the 
bolts  will  fly  back  in  the  best  season,  both  in  regard  of  your- 
selves and  us ;  but  we  apprize  more  of  the  appearance  of  an 
evident  hand  of  God  exalting  himself  in  his  own  way,  than 
we  do  of  our  bodily  livelyhood,  for  we  fear  not  the  face  of 
man,  for  God  hath  shewed  us  what  all  flesh  is,  otherwise  we 
would  visit  you  in  the  place  where  you  remain,  though  we 
came  unto  you  on  our  barefeet,  or  any  that  professeth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  opposing  his  authority  against  all  the  powers  of 
darkness.  If  God  have  brought  you  into  these  parts,  as  in- 
struments to  open  the  excellencies  of  the  Tabernacle,  where- 
ever  the  Cloud  causeth  you  to  abide,  no  doubt  but  this  your 
imprisonment  shall  be  an  eifectual  preface  to  your  work,  to 
bring  the  Gain-sayers  to  nought,  which  my  soul  waits  for, 
not  with  respect  to  any  particular  man's  person,  but  with 
respect  unto  that  universall  spirit  of  wickedness  gone  out 
into  the  world  to  deceive  and  tyrranize,  and  in  that  respect 
my  soul  saith,  O  Lord  I  have  waited  for  thy  salvation. 

I  may  not  presume  to  use  a  word  of  exhortation  unto  you, 
being  I  had  rather  (as  having  more  need)  to  be  admonished 
by  you,  not  doubting  but  you  are  plentifully  enabled  to  ad- 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  361 


monish  one  another,  let  me  make  bold  to  say  thus  much  to 
myself,  Stand  still,  and  behold  the  Salvation  of  the  Lord; 
we  are  Persons  lie  here  as  buried  unto  the  Sons  of  men,  in 
a  corner  of  the  Earth,  grudged  at,  that  we  have  this  present 
burying  place.  But  our  God  may  please  to  send  some  of 
his  Saints  unto  us,  to  speak  words  which  the  dead  hearing 
them  shall  live. 

I  may  not  trouble  you  further  at  this  time,  only  if  we 
knew  that  you  had  a  mind  to  stay  in  these  parts  after  your 
inlargement  (for  we  hear  you  are  to  be  sent  back  to  Eng- 
land) and  what  time  the  Ship  would  set  Saile,  or  could  have 
hope  the  Master  would  deliver  you,  we  would  endeavor  to 
have  a  Vessell  in  readiness,  when  the  Ship  doeth  out  of 
Harbour,  to  take  you  in,  and  set  you  where  you  may  enjoy 
your  liberty. 

I  marvel  what  manner  of  God  your  Adversaries  trust  in, 
who  is  so  fearful  of  being  infected  with  errour  or  how  they 
think  they  shall  escape  the  wiles  and  power  of  the  Devill, 
when  the  arm  of  flesh  fails  them,  whereby  they  seek  to  de- 
fend themselves  for  the  present,  sure  they  think  their  God 
will  be  grown  to  more  power  and  care  over  them,  in,  and 
after  death,  or  else  they  will  be  loath  to  passe  through  it; 
but  I  leave  them,  and  in  Spirit  cleave  unto  him  (as  being  in 
you)  who  is  ever  the  same  all  sufficient. 

In  whom  I  am  yours, 

Samuel  Gorton. 

A  copy  of  a  Letter  from  the  Men  called  Quakers. 

The  Superscription. 
For  our  Friend  Samuel  Gorton,  this  deliver. 
Friend, 

In  that  measure  which  we  have  received,  which  is  etern- 


362    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


all,  we  see  thee,  and  behold  thee,  and  have  onenesse  with 
thee,  in  that  which  is  meek  and  low,  and  is  not  of  this  world, 
but  bears  witnessse  against  the  world,  that  the  wayes  and 
works  thereof  are  evill;  and  in  that  meek  and  lowspirit  we 
salute  thee,  and  owns  that  of  God  in  thee  which  is  waiting 
for,  and  expecting  the  raising  of  that  which  is  under  the 
Earth,  and  in  the  Grave,  groaning  for  the  removing  of  the 
stone  which  the  wise  professors  hath  and  doth  lay  upon,  that 
it  might  not  come  forth,  but  the  time  is  come  and  coming, 
for  the  Angell  of  his  presence  to  take  away  that  which 
hinders,  that  the  Prisoner  may  come  forth,  and  arise  to  the 
glory  of  him,  who  is  raised  up  to  the  glory  of  the  Father, 
and  hath  overcome  Hell  and  Death,  and  all  the  Powers  of 
darkness,  and  is  a  spreading  his  name  forth  to  the  ends  of 
the  Earth,  and  hath  sounded  his  Trumpet  in  these  parts  also, 
and  is  a  beginning  his  war  with  Ameleke  and  the  Philistines, 
and  Egyptians,  in  this  part  of  the  world,  who  are  set  and 
setting  themselves  against  the  Lord  in  this  the  day  of  his 
mighty  power,  wherein  he  will  exalt  the  horn  of  his  anoint- 
ed, and  bring  down  all  the  fat  kine,  and  Buls  of  Bashan, 
whose  eyes  are  ready  to  start  out  with  rage  and  madnesse, 
against  that  which  is  become  as  a  burthensome  stone  amongst 
them,  and  is  that  stone  which  will  break  all  their  imagin- 
aries  in  pieces  and  shall  become  a  great  mountain,  which 
shall  bring  down  the  stout  hearts  of  the  Kings  of  Assyria, 
and  all  their  high  iooks,  and  level  their  mountains  of  wis- 
dom and  knowledge,  and  dry  up  the  tongue  of  the  Egyptian 
Sea,  and  shall  make  way  for  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  to 
come  to  Sion  with  joy  and  gladness,  being  redeemed  from 
kindreds.  Nations,  Tongues,  and  People,  by  the  blood  of 
Jesus,  which  is  spirit  and  life,  in  all  those  that  obey  the 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  363 


light,  which  from  the  life  doth  come,  for  the  life  is  the  light 
of  men,  and  whosoever  believes  in  the  light,  which  they  are 
enlightened  with  shall  not  abide  in  darkness,  but  shall  have 
the  light  of  life,  which  light  we  have  obeyed  in  coming  into 
these  parts,  and  we  do  v/itnesse  the  life  in  the  measure  given 
to  us,  whereby  we  are  enabled  to  encounter  with  Principalit- 
ies and  Powers,  and  wickedness  in  high  places,  and  can  deny 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  it,  and  take  up  his  Crosse  dayly, 
and  follow  him;  in  which  we  witness  the  power  of  God, 
whereby  the  World  is  crucified  unto  us,  and  us  unto  the 
World;  and  in  that,  in  our  measure  we  deny  ourselves,  and 
can  wait  in  the  eternall  counsell  which  is  out  of  time  mani- 
fested in  time,  not  being  hasty,  but  let  thee  Lord  alone  to  do 
his  own  work,  in  his  own  way,  and  there  can  sit  down  in  our 
rest,  which  is  his  will,  and  when  he  moves  us,  then  we  go 
and  do  his  will  in  his  power,  and  when  he  clouds  we  stand 
still  waiting  for  the  removing  of  the  Cloud,  and  so  we  know 
when  to  journey  and  when  not,  and  herein  are  we  at  rest 
when  our  Adversaries  are  in  trouble,  and  in  Egyptian  dark- 
ness, fitted  and  prepared  for  destruction,  which  assuredly 
must  fall  upon  them,  from  the  God  of  Justice. 

Friend,  the  Lord  hath  drawn  forth  our  hearts,  to  this 
place  in  much  love,  Kjiowing  in  the  light,  that  he  hath  a 
great  seed  among  you,  though  scattered  up  and  down,  and 
are  as  sheep  without  a  Shepherd,  and  you  are  travelling 
from  Mountain  to  Hill  in  your  wisdome  and  imaginations, 
the  resting  place  being  not  yet  known,  nor  cannot  be  known 
by  the  highest  wisdome  of  the  world,  but  in  the  deniall  of 
it,  for  there  is  something  underneath,  which  is  not,  nor  can- 
not be  satisfied  with  all  the  divings  into  the  mystery  of 
things  declared  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  which  is  the  man 


364    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


of  God's  portion,  and  was  given  to  that  to  profit  withal,  that 
it  might  be  thoroughly  furnished  to  every  good  word  and 
work,  but  this  is  too  low  a  thing  for  those  which  are  high 
in  their  wisdom  and  knowledge,  which  they  can  hardly 
stoop  unto,  that  is  to  be  come  fools,  that  they  may  be  wise, 
that  the  pure  wisdome  may  dwell  with  them  for  evermore. 

But  the  Lord  is  come,  and  coming  to  levell  the  Mount- 
ains, and  to  send  the  Rocks  of  wisdome  and  Knowledge, 
and  to  exalt  that  which  is  low  and  foolish  to  the  wisdome 
of  the  world,  and  blessed  shall  thou,  and  all  those  be,  who 
meets  him  in  this  his  work,  which  he  is  doing  in  the  Earth, 
and  in  this  place  wherein  thou  now  dwellest,  in  setting  up 
the  King  the  Lord  of  Hosts  to  reign  in  righteousness,  for  his 
Tabernacle  shall  be  among  men  and  he  will  dwell  in  them, 
and  walk  in  them,  and  he  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall 
be  his  people  from  henceforth  even  for  ever.  Now  to  that 
which  thou  writes  to  us,  to  know  our  minds  to  stay  in  these 
parts,  we  are  unwilling  to  go  out  of  these  parts,  if  here  we 
could  be  suffered  to  stay,  but  we  are  willing  to  mind  the 
Lord,  what  way  he  will  take  for  our  staying,  and  if  he  in 
wisdome  shall  raise  thee  up,  and  others  for  that  end,  we 
shall  be  willing  to  accept  of  it;  but  what  the  Master  of  the 
Ship  will  do  in  the  thing  we  know  not,  they  endeavoring  to 
force  him  to  enter  into  bond  of  500I  to  set  us  ashore  in 
England,  which  he  did  at  first  refused,  for  which  they  sent 
him  to  prison  without  bail  and  Mainprize,  as  we  are  in- 
formed; but  since  he  doth  proffer  his  own  bond  but  they  will 
not  at  present  accept  it  without  security  besides  to  be  bound 
with  him,  for  they  are  affraid  that  we  should  be  set  ashore 
in  these  parts  again,  therefore  they  make  their  Bond  as 
strong  as  they  can,  but  the  Lord  knows  a  way  to  break  their 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  365 


bonds  asunder.  The  Master  hath  been  writ  unto  and  warned 
that  he  should  not  enter  bond,  which  if  he  did  not,  it 
would  be  as  a  Crown  of  honor  upon  his  head  but  if  he  doth, 
the  Lord  knows  how  to  defeat  them  and  him  too.  Now 
what  he  doth  is  out  of  a  slavish  fear,  because  he  would  not 
lie  in  prison,  and  hinder  his  voyage,  but  if  the  bond  hinder 
him  not,  he  would  have  been  willing  to  have  delivered  us, 
and  we  should  have  been  willing  to  have  satisfied  him, 
which  we  did  proffer  him;  and  if  he  be  not  hindered,  the 
ship  will  be  ready  to  set  sayl  about  fourteen  days  hence,  but 
at  present  the  Master  doth  not  know  what  to  doe,  their  de- 
mands being  so  unjust,  to  force  him  to  carry  us  and  they  not 
pay  him  for  it,  nor  we  shall  not  and  yet  will  not  take  his 
own  bond,  but  will  have  security  besides,  so  that  he  and 
they  are  troubled  with  a  burthensome  stone,  the  ARK  of 
God  doth  afflict  them,  send  it  away  they  would,  but  yet  they 
are  not  agreed  what  to  do  with  it  ;  so  we  shall  leave  them  to 
be  guided  by  that  wisdome,  which  governs  all  men  and 
things,  according  to  the  counsel  of  his  own  will,  and  bring- 
eth  his  purpose  to  passe  by  whom  and  in  whom  he  pleaseth. 

From  the  Servances  and  Messengers  of  the  Lord  whom  he 
hath  sent  and  brought  by  the  arm  of  his  power  into  these 
parts  of  the  world,  for  which  we  suffer  bonds  and  close 
imprisonment,  none  suffered  to  speake  or  confer  with  us, 
nor  scarce  to  see  us,  being  locked  up  in  the  inward  prison, 
as  the  Gaoler  pretends,  because  we  do  not  deliver  our  Ink- 
horns,  although  he  hath  taken  away  three  from  us  already, 
and  will  not  suffer  us  to  burn  our  own  candles,  but  takes 
them  away  from  us,  because  we  shall  not  write  in  the  night, 
though  we  are  strangers  to  thee,  and  others  in  this  place. 


366    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


yet  seen  and  known  in  the  light,  yet  known  in  the  World 
by  these  Names. 

William  Brend 
From  the  Common  Gaol  Thomas  Thurston 

in  Boston  this  28  of  the  Christopher  Holder 

seventh,  1656.  John  Copeland. 

Post.  We  and  all  the  rest  of  friends  with  us  remember 
their  love  to  thee,  and  if  thou  hast  freedome  let  us  heare 
from  thee. 

Barwick  in  the  Narhyganset-Bay  this  present  October 
6,  1656. 

The  Superscription. 
To  the  Strangers,  suffering  imprisonment  in  Boston  for 
the  name  of  Christ,  these  with  trust  present  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Loving  Friends, 

We  have  thankfully  received  your  late  and  lov- 
ing letters,  but  are  informed  that  since  the  penning  of  them 
the  Master  of  the  Ship  is  ingaged  with  two  of  Boston  bound 
with  him,  to  set  you  ashore  in  England,  so  that  we  perceive 
God  hath  diverted  our  desired  designe,  we  doubt  not  but  for 
the  best  in  a  further  discovery  of  that  spirit  so  wickedly 
bent  to  hinder  (if  it  were  possible)  the  fruitful  progress  of 
the  grace  of  the  Gospel,  and  it  may  be,  the  name  given  unto 
you  (we  know  not  upon  what  ground)  may  come  through  in 
unalterable  appointment,  to  be  the  naturall  practice  of  such 
as  so  deal  with  you  when  the  terrours  of  the  Almighty  shall 
take  hold  of  them. 

Then  follow  some  sixteen  pages  in  which  detailed  refer- 
ences to  the  Friends'  letter  are  made  and  general  approval 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  367 


is  given  to  the  religious  views  expressed.  Gorton  con- 
cludes : 

But  I  am  afraid  of  being  over  tedious  unto  you,  yet  you 
may  please  to  see  my  freedome  again  to  salute  you,  by  the 
multiplications  of  my  lines,  and  the  rather  because  I  per- 
ceive the  ingagement  for  your  return  so  speedily  to  England 
and  know  not  whether  we  shall  ever  come  to  speak  mouth 
to  mouth,  or  find  a  way  and  opportunity  again  to  write :  I 
hope  it  will  not  be  burthensome  to  you  to  peruse  this,  no 
more  than  it  would  be  to  me,  to  peruse  a  larger  Epistle  com- 
ing from  your  selves.  And  so  with  my  hearty  respects  unto 
you  all,  I  cease  to  trouble  you  further  at  this  time. 

Remaining  yours,  as  you  are  Christ's, 

Samuel  Gorton. 

This  plan  to  obtain  their  release  failed,  as  Captain  Locke 
was  placed  under  a  bond  to  deliver  them  in  England,  and 
lacked  the  courage  to  disobey.  The  "Speedwell"  sailed  for 
England  August  6th,  1656.  She  was  not  much  larger  than 
a  modem  smack,  high-pooped,  slow  and  uncomfortable,  and 
of  about  sixty  tons  burden,  yet  she  carried  the  little  band  to 
England  where  Christopher  Holder  and  his  five  comrades  at 
once  began  to  devise  some  plan  to  return  to  America. 

Through  the  good  offices  of  Gerard  Rodgers,  a  Friend 
named  Robert  Fowler  of  Holderness  was  found  who  had 
just  completed  a  vessel,  and  who  agreed  to  undertake  the 
dangerous  experiment.  The  craft  was  named  "The  Wood- 
house"  and  she  set  sail  on  the  1st  of  April,  1657,  with  the 
following  Quakers:  Christopher  Holder,  William  Brend, 
John  Copeland,  Sarah  Gibbons,  Mary  Weatherhead,  Dor- 
othy Waugh,  Robert  Hodgson,  Humphrey  Norton,  Rich- 
ard Doudney,  William  Robinson  and  Mary  Clark.  The 


368   THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


"Woodhouse"  was  a  small  coaster  about  the  size  of  the 
Speedwell.  Her  crew  consisted  of  three  men  and  three 
boys,  who  had  a  hazy  knowledge  of  navigation  at  best ;  yet 
she  reached  New  Amsterdam  (New  York)  in  a  little  less 
than  two  months  after  sailing. 

In  Devonshire  House,  London,  may  be  seen  the  original 
log  of  this  extraordinary  voyage,  countersigned  by  George 
Fox;  extraordinary,  as  the  ship  was  not  sailed  by  compass, 
as  the  captain  was  not  a  navigator.  He  knew  that  America 
lay  some  three  thousand  miles  to  the  west,  and  that  it  would 
take  him  about  two  months  to  beat  over  to  it.  What  he 
lacked  in  knowledge  of  navigation  he  made  up  in  faith. 
This  lack  of  knowledge  did  not  disturb  the  Friends. 

They  were  on  a  mission  of  the  Lord,  were  in  His  hands. 
Every  day  they  held  a  meeting  and  requested  guidance,  and 
from  this  source.  Captain  Fowler  laid  his  course.  On  the 
fiftieth  day  the  "Woodhouse"  sailed  into  Long  Island 
Sound.   The  following  is  a  verbatim  copy  of  this  log: 

The  Log  of  the  "Woodhouse." 

"A  true  relation  of  the  voyage  undertaken  by  me,  Robert 
Fowler,  with  my  vessel  the  'Woodhouse,'  but  performed  by 
the  Lord  like  as  he  did  Noah's  ark  wherein  he  shut  up  a  few 
righteous  persons  and  landed  them  safe  even  at  the  hill 
Ararat. 

"Upon  the  first  day  of  the  fourth  months  called  June^  re- 
ceived I  the  Lord's  servants  aboard,  who  came  with  a  migh- 
ty hand  and  an  outstretched  arm  with  them;  so  that  with 
courage  we  set  sail,  and  came  to  the  Downs  the  2nd  day, 
where  our  dearly  beloved  William  Dewsbury,  with  Mich. 
Thompson,  came  aboard,  and  in  them  we  were  much  re- 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  369 


freshed;  and,  after  recommending  us  to  the  grace  of  God,  we 
launched  forth. 

Again  reason  entered  upon  me,  and  thoughts  arose  in  me 
to  have  gone  to  the  Admiral,  and  have  made  complaint  for 
the  want  of  my  servants,  and  for  a  convoy,  from  which 
thing  I  was  withholden  by  that  Hand  which  was  my  helper. 
Shortly  after  the  south  wind  blew  a  little  hard,  so  that  it 
caused  us  to  put  in  at  Portsmouth,  where  I  was  furnished 
with  a  choice  of  men,  according  to  one  of  the  Captain's 
words  to  me,  that  I  might  have  enough  for  money;  but  he 
said  my  vessel  was  so  small,  he  would  not  go  the  voyage  for 
her. 

Certain  days  we  lay  there,  wherein  the  ministers  of  Christ 
were  not  idle,  but  went  forth  and  gathered  sticks,  and 
kindled  a  fire,  and  left  it  burning;  also  several  Friends  came 
on  board  and  visited  us,  in  which  we  were  refreshed.  Again 
we  launched  from  thence  about  the  11th  day  of  the  Fourth 
Month,  and  were  put  back  again  into  South  Yarmouth, 
where  we  went  ashore,  and  there  in  some  measure  did  the 
like.  Also  we  met  with  three  pretty  large  ships  which  were 
for  the  Newfoundland,  who  did  accompany  us  about  fifty 
leagues,  but  might  have  done  300,  if  they  had  not  feared 
the  men-of-war;  but  for  escaping  them  they  took  to  the 
northward,  and  left  us  without  hope  of  help  as  to  the  out- 
ward; though  before  our  parting  it  was  showed  to  Humph- 
rey Norton  early  in  the  morning,  that  they  were  nigh  unto 
us  that  sought  our  lives,  and  he  called  unto  me  and  told  me ; 
but  said.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  ye  shall  be  carried  away  as 
in  a  mist ;'  and  presently  we  espied  a  great  ship  making  up 
towards  us,  and  the  three  great  ships  were  much  afraid,  and 

tacked  about  with  what  speed  they  could;  in  the  very  in- 
24 


370    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


terim  the  Lord  God  fulfilled  his  promise,  and  struck  our 
enemies  in  the  face  with  a  contrary  wind,  wonderfully  to 
our  refreshment.  Then  upon  our  parting  with  these  three 
ships  we  were  brought  to  ask  counsel  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
word  was  from  Him,  'Cut  through  and  steer  your  straightest 
course,  and  mind  nothing  but  me;'  unto  which  thing  He 
much  provoked  us,  and  caused  us  to  meet  together  every 
day,  and  He  himself  met  with  us,  and  manifested  himself 
largely  unto  us,  so  that  by  storms  we  were  not  prevented 
(from  meeting)  above  three  times  in  all  our  voyage.  The 
sea  was  my  figure,  for  if  anything  got  up  within,  the  sea 
without  rose  up  against  me,  and  then  the  floods  clapped 
their  hands,  of  which  in  time  I  took  notice,  and  told 
Humphrey  Norton.  Again,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  I  saw 
some  anchors  swimming  about  the  water,  and  something  also 
of  a  ship  which  crossed  our  way,  which  in  our  meeting  I 
saw  fulfilled,  for  I  myself,  with  others,  had  lost  ours,  so 
that  for  a  little  season  the  vessel  run  loose  in  a  manner; 
which  afterwards,  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  was  recovered  in- 
to a  better  condition  than  before. 

Also  upon  the  25th  day  of  the  same  month,  in  the  morn- 
ing, we  saw  another  great  ship  making  up  towards  us,  which 
did  appear,  far  off,  to  be  a  frigate,  and  make  her  sign  for  us 
to  come  to  them,  which  unto  me  was  a  great  cross,  we  being 
to  windward  of  them ;  and  it  was  said,  'Go  speak  to  him,  the 
cross  is  sure;  did  I  ever  fail  thee  therein^'  And  unto  others 
there  appeared  no  danger  in  it,  so  that  we  did ;  and  it  proved 
a  tradesman  of  London,  by  whom  we  writ  back.  Also  it  is 
very  remarkable,  when  we  have  been  five  weeks  at  sea  in  a 
bark,  wherein  the  power  of  darkness  appeared  in  the  great- 
est strength  against  us,  having  sailed  but  300  leagues. 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  371 


Humphrey  Norton,  falling  into  communion  with  God,  told 
me  that  he  had  received  a  comfortable  answer;  and  also  that 
about  such  a  day  we  should  land  in  America,  which  was 
even  so  fulfilled.  Also  thus  it  was  all  the  voyage  with  the 
faithful,  who  were  carried  far  above  storms  and  tempests, 
that  when  the  ship  went  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the 
left,  their  hands  joined  all  as  one,  and  did  direct  her  way; 
so  that  we  have  seen  and  said,  we  see  the  Lord  leading  our 
vessel  even  as  it  were  a  man  leading  a  horse  by  the  head; 
we  regarding  neither  latitude  nor  longitude,  but  kept  to  our 
Line,  which  was  and  is  our  Leader,  Guide,  and  Rule,  but 
they  that  did  failed. 

Upon  the  last  day  of  the  Fifth  Month,  1657,  we  made 
land.  It  was  part  of  Long  Island,  far  contrary  to  the  ex- 
pectations of  the  pilot;  furthermore,  our  drawing  had  been 
all  the  passage  to  keep  to  the  southwards,  until  the  evening 
before  we  made  land,  and  then  the  word  was,  'There  is  a 
lion  in  the  way;'  unto  which  we  gave  obedience  and  said, 
'Let  them  steer  northwards  until  the  day  following;'  and 
soon  after  the  middle  of  the  day  there  was  a  drawing  to 
meet  together  before  our  usual  time,  and  it  was  said,  that 
we  may  look  abroad  in  the  evening;  and  as  we  sat  waiting 
upon  the  Lord  they  discovered  the  land,  and  our  mouths  were 
opened  in  prayer  and  thanksgiving;  and  as  our  way  was 
made,  we  made  towards  it,  and  espying  a  creek,  our  advice 
was  to  enter  there,  but  the  will  of  man  (in  the  pilot)  resist- 
ed ;  but  in  that  state  we  had  learned  to  be  content,  and  told 
them  both  sides  were  safe,  but  that  going  that  way  would 
be  more  trouble  to  him;  also  he  saw  after  he  had  laid  by  all 
night,  the  thing  fulfilled. 

Now,  to  lay  before  you,  in  short,  the  largeness  of  the  wis- 


372    THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA 


dom,  will  and  power  of  God.  Thus,  this  creek  led  us  between 
the  Dutch  Plantation  and  Long  Island,  where  the  movings 
of  some  Friends  were  unto,  which  otherwise  would  have 
been  very  difficult  for  them  to  have  gotten  to ;  also  the  Lord 
that  moved  them  brought  them  to  the  place  appointed,  and 
led  us  into  our  way,  according  to  the  word  which  came  imto 
Christopher  Holder,  'You  are  in  the  road  to  Long  Island.' 
In  that  creek  came  a  shallop  to  meet  us,  taking  us  to  be 
strangers,  we  making  our  way  with  our  boat,  and  they  spoke 
English,  and  informed  us,  and  also  guided  us  along.  The 
power  of  the  Lord  fell  much  upon  us,  and  an  irresistible 
word  came  unto  us.  That  the  seed  in  America  shall  be  as  the 
sand  of  the  sea ;  it  was  published  in  the  ears  of  the  brethren, 
which  caused  tears  to  break  forth  with  fulness  of  joy;  so 
that  presently  for  these  places  some  prepared  themselves, 
who  were  Robert  Hodgson,  Richard  Doudney,  Sarah  Gib- 
bons, Mary  Weatherhead,  and  Dorothy  Waugh,  who  the 
next  day  were  put  safely  ashore  into  the  Dutch  Plantation, 
called  New  Amsterdam.  We  came,  and  it  being  the  First 
day  of  the  week  several  came  aboard  to  us,  and  we  began 
our  work.  I  was  caused  to  go  to  the  Governor,  and  Robert 
Hodgson  with  me — he  was  moderate  both  in  words  and 
actions. 

Robert  and  I  had  several  days  before  seen  in  a  vision  the 
vessel  in  great  danger;  the  day  following  this,  it  was  ful- 
filled, there  being  a  passage  betwixt  two  lands,  which  is  call- 
ed by  the  name  of  Hell-gate ;  we  lay  very  conveniently  for 
a  pilot,  and  unto  that  place  we  came,  and  into  it  were  forc- 
ed, and  over  it  were  carried,  which  I  never  heard  of  any 
before  that  were;  (there  were)  rocks  many  on  both  sides,  so 
that  I  believe  one  yard's  length  would  have  endangered  loss 


THE  PIONEER  QUAKERS  IN  AMERICA  373 


of  both  vessel  and  goods.  Also  there  was  a  shoal  of  fish 
which  pursued  our  vessel,  and  followed  her  strangely,  and 
close  by  our  rudder:  and  in  our  meeting  it  was  shown  me, 
these  fish  are  to  be  to  thee  a  figure.  Thus  doth  the  prayers 
of  the  churches  proceed  to  the  Lord  for  thee  and  the  rest. 
Surely  in  our  meeting  did  the  thing  run  through  me  as  oil, 
and  bid  me  much  rejoice. 

Robert  Fowler. 

Endorsed  by  George  Fox, 
R.  Fowler's  Voyage,  1657." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


FOUNDING  THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS 
IN  AMERICA. 

Of  the  eleven  Friends  who  reached  America  in  the 
*'Woodhouse"  in  1657,  five  decided  to  begin  their  labors  in 
New  York,  or  New  Amsterdam,  as  it  was  then  called,  and 
two,  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland,  feeling  an  un- 
mistakable call  from  God  to  proceed  to  Boston,  from  which 
the  former  had  been  banished,  landed  at  Martha's  Vine- 
yard. In  one  of  John  Copeland' s  letters,  which  has  been 
preserved,  he  says,  "I  and  Christopher  Holder  are  going  to 
Martha's  Vineyard  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  God  which 
is  our  joy."  They  landed  first  at  Providence,  and  preached 
at  various  towns;  then  on  the  16th  of  June  visited  Martha's 
Vineyard  which  was  then  occupied  by  the  Algonquin  In- 
dians. The  Puritans  had  established  a  mission  here,  which 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  was  a  public  "steeple- 
house."  This  was  in  charge  of  a  minister  named  Mayhew. 
The  two  missionaries  were  now  again  in  the  enemy's 
country,  from  which  they  had  been  summarily  banished  but 
a  year  before,  and  were  liable  to  arrest  at  any  moment. 
Even  the  fisherman  who  transported  them  from  the  main- 
land was  in  grave  danger  for  aiding  and  abetting  them. 
They  attended  the  service  of  Mayhew,  and  when  he  had 
concluded  Christopher  Holder  arose  and  addressed  the  meet- 
ing, saying  that  they  brought  the  Word  as  understood  by  the 
Friends,  and  were  messengers  bearing  God's  love  to  their 
brethren  in  America.    The  English  Friend  had  not  proceed- 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  375 


ed  far,  when,  at  the  order  of  the  minister,  a  constable  seized 
him,  and,  thrusting  him  violently  from  the  church,  bade  him 
remain  there  and  cease  his  heretical  language.  But,  believ- 
ing that  they  were  directly  called,  the  missionaries  refused, 
and  joined  the  congregation  in  its  afternoon  meeting;  when 
the  clergyman  had  ended  the  service,  they  again  attempted 
to  speak,  and  had  some  controversy  with  the  congregation 
on  doctrinal  points.  They  were  not  molested,  but  during 
the  evening  certain  citizens  entered  a  complaint  against 
them,  and  the  following  morning  the  governor,  with  a  con- 
stable, called  and  demanded  why  they  were  there.  The 
reply  was  because  they  were  obeying  the  will  of  God.  At 
this  the  governor  laughed,  and  answered,  "It  is  the  will  of 
God  that  you  both  leave  today.  I  have  provided  a  native 
to  carry  you  across;  pay  him  and  go  your  way." 

But  the  missionaries  were  not  to  be  discouraged;  they  be- 
lieved it  was  their  duty  to  remain,  so  they  refused  to  facilit- 
ate their  eviction  by  paying  their  fare  to  the  Algonquin  or  to 
leave  the  island.  Their  refusal  to  go,  and  their  perfect 
confidence  in  the  position  they  had  taken,  dumfounded  the 
governor,  who,  after  expostulating  with  them,  ordered  the 
constable  to  search  them  and  take  the  passage  money  by 
force.  During  the  struggle  the  natives  took  sides  with  the 
two  defenseless  Quakers,  and  refused  to  be  a  party  to  their 
enforced  departure.  The  governor  was  nonplused,  and, 
as  the  weather  was  stormy,  and  none  of  the  Puritans  would 
put  to  sea  with  the  Quakers,  he  left  them  where  they  stood, 
ordering  that  no  one  should  give  them  shelter. 

He  did  not  count  on  the  Algonquins,  as  these  intelligent 
natives  invited  the  Quakers  to  their  village,  and  entertained 
them  with  every  kindness  for  three  days;  and  when  they 


376       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


took  their  departure  finally,  asking  the  Indians  to  transport 
them  to  the  mainland,  the  latter  refused  the  accept  the 
slightest  reward.  The  chief  replied  to  Christopher  Hold- 
er's offer  of  money  in  a  manner  that  showed  that  these  rude 
natives  were  princes  when  hospitality  was  concerned.  "We 
wish  no  pay,"  said  the  Algonquin;  "you  are  strangers,  and 
Jehovah  has  taught  us  to  love  strangers."  "These  poor 
people,"  says  Sewell,  the  Dutch  Historian,  "acted  more  in 
unison  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  than  those  who  were 
wont  to  be  their  teachers,  declining  to  receive  their  reward." 

The  Algonquins  landed  Christopher  Holder  and  his  com- 
panion on  the  mainland  near  Barnstable  in  safety,  and  they 
began  the  march  across  the  barren  country.  In  1657 
Indians  were  almost  the  sole  occupants  of  the  forest,  and 
between  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Plymouth  there  were  but 
two  English  settlements — Sandwich  and  Falmouth.  The 
men  must  have  had  sublime  faith,  as  there  were  no  roads, 
no  signs  to  direct  the  wayfarer;  only  a  trackless  forest. 
They  knew  the  general  direction,  and,  with  blankets  and 
the  food  provided  by  the  Indians,  they  began  the  walk  to 
Sandwich  where  they  hoped  to  have  a  meeting.  In  due 
time  they  arrived,  passing  over  the  long  stretches  of  sand 
dunes,  finally  reaching  Sandwich.  At  this  time  the  town 
was  represented  by  a  collection  of  log  houses  in  one  of  which 
the  wanderers  found  shelter,  soon  learning  that  religious  in- 
tolerance had  created  imrest  in  the  town,  and  that  some  of 
the  people  were  eager  for  the  new  word  which  they  brought. 
Sewell  says:  "Their  arrival  at  this  place  was  hailed  with 
feelings  of  satisfaction  by  many  who  were  sincere  seekers 
after  heavenly  riches,  but  who  had  long  been  burdened  with 
a  lifeless  ministry  and  dead  forms  of  religion." 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  377 


It  will  be  remembered  that  these  were  the  first  school 
meetings  held  in  New  England  by  Quakers.  The  previous 
year  Christopher  Holder  and  his  friends  had  indeed  reached 
Boston,  but  they  spent  the  eleven  weeks  in  jail;  hence  Sand- 
wich became  the  first  field  for  the  Friends  in  the  Colonies  of 
Plymouth  and  Massachusetts. 

The  memory  of  Christopher  Holder  is  still  kept  green  by 
the  descendants  of  his  original  converts.  The  meetings 
were  held  in  the  homes  of  those  who  were  willing  to  have 
them.  The  people  were  eager  for  the  word,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  efforts  of  the  eloquent  preacher  were  repaid  by  the 
accession  of  eighteen  families  to  the  ranks  of  the  Friends. 
But  Sandwich  was  no  exception  to  the  rule  of  intolerance 
which  held  in  the  colony  at  that  period.  Endicott  and 
Norton  had  emissaries  even  here,  who  were  familiar  with 
the  laws  which  had  been  enacted  the  preceding  summer  for 
the  eviction  or  banishment  of  Christopher  Holder  and  his 
companions,  and  when  the  rumor  was  circulated  that  two 
prominent  English  Quakers  had  arrived,  and  were  preach- 
ing, they  were  at  once  denounced  and  a  constable  was  sent  to 
arrest  them. 

The  Friends  were  holding  a  meeting  in  the  home  of  a 
convert  named  Allen — whose  descendants  still  reside  in 
Sandwich — when  some  one  warned  them  of  the  threatened 
danger.  The  house  stood  near  some  high,  deeply-wooded 
hills,  and  to  these  the  little  congregation  adjourned  their 
meeting,  that  the  services  might  continue,  and  that  Christo- 
pher Holder  and  his  friend  might  escape  arrest  and  conse- 
quent indignities.  Reaching  the  hilltop,  they  looked  down 
into  a  deep  and  beautiful  glen  or  hollow,  which  seemed  to 
invite  them  to  its  leafy  seclusion,  and,  pressing  on,  these 


378       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


I  earnest  fugitives  from  religious  intolerance  made  their  way 
\  through  the  thicket  and  came  to  a  level  spot  by  the  side  of 
a  little  stream,  beneath  the  blue  sky,  surrounded  by  masses 
of  luxuriant  verdure,  Christopher  Holder  and  his  young 
friend,  John  Copeland,  conducted  a  meeting  which  so  im- 
pressed these  converts  that  to  this  day,  two  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  years  later,  his  personality  clings  to  the  spot, 
which  is  known  all  through  Barnstable  county  and  New 
England,  as  "Christopher's  Hollow." 

The  attention  of  the  author  was  first  called  to  this  fact 
some  years  ago  by  the  late  Emily  Holder  Howe,  then  resid- 
ing in  Boston,  a  descendant  of  Christopher  Holder,  who 
sent  the  following  version,  written  by  a  resident  of  Sand- 
wich: 

"About  a  mile  southwesterly  from  Spring  Hill  village  is 
a  deep  sequestered  glen  or  hollow  in  the  wood.  No  spot 
in  the  county  of  Barnstable  is  more  secluded  or  lovely.  The 
quiet  glen  is  surrounded  by  a  ridge  of  hills,  covered  in  part 
by  trees,  and  is  some  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  deep. 
In  the  spring  and  summer  a  small  stream  of  water  runs  in 
this  glen,  which  keeps  up  a  perpetual  murmur.  For  over 
two  centuries  this  lovely  spot  has  been  called  'Christopher's 
Hollow,'  in  memory  of  Christopher  Holder.  On  an  Aug- 
ust day  in  1657,  after  the  severe  penal  act  of  the  provincial 
legislature  had  passed,  a  small,  sincere  band  of  worshippers 
met  at  Allen's  house,  Spring  Hill,  but  immediately  adjourned 
to  the  hollow  to  offer  up  devout  supplication  to  Him 
who  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Those  who  visit  this  place 
will  notice  on  the  westerly  side  a  row  of  flat  stones,  which 
are  believed  to  have  been  the  seats  upon  which  this  meager 
congregation  sat  and  listened  to  the  heartfelt  teachings  of 
Christopher  Holder,  a  sincere  and  upright  man." 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  379 


On  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Sandwich 
— 1639-1889 — a  poem  was  written  and  read  by  Miss  Mary 
A.  D.  Conroy,  of  Roxbury,  in  which  Christopher's  Hollow 
is  referred  to.    Some  of  the  lines  are  as  follows : 

"Their  meeting  place — a  sylvan  glen, 
Environed  by  protecting  trees. 
Here,  far  removed  from  curious  eyes, 
Their  God  they  worshipped  silently. 
Their  choir  the  myriad  song  birds  were ; 

Their  hassocks  stones;  the  mossy  sward 
Beneath  their  feet  their  carpet  was. 
An  azure  ceil,  the  sky  above. 
No  temple  made  by  mortal  hands 
Could  rival  this  in  loveliness." 

To  Sandwich  belongs  the  honor  of  being  what  may  be 
termed  the  pioneer  Quaker  town  in  America.  Here  events 
rapidly  occurred  which  were  especially  epoch-making. 
Here,  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland,  of  Holder- 
ness,  formed  the  first  Society  of  Friends  on  this  continent, 
established  the  first  meeting,  received  the  first  welcome  and 
planted  the  first  seed  from  which  sprang  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  religious  organizations  in  America — remarkable 
not  for  its  spectacular  features  or  for  its  pretentious 
doctrines,  but  for  its  purity,  its  absolute  disinterestedness 
and  its  near  approach  to  that  highest  standard  of  moral  per- 
fection expressed  by  the  life  and  teaching  of  the  founder  of 
the  Christian  religion. 

That  Governor  Endicott  and  the  Puritan  priests — 
Norton  and  others  of  Boston — intended  to  create  a  virtual 


38o       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AiMERICA 


reign  of  terror  in  the  ranks  of  the  people  they  derisively 
termed  Quakers,  there  is  no  possible  question.  To  accomp- 
lish this  they  appointed  officials  in  every  town  to  watch  for 
them;  hence  the  meetings  in  Sandwich  could  not  be  con- 
cealed, nor  was  it  the  desire  of  Christopher  Holder  to  preach 
in  secret.  He  boldly  proclaimed  his  mission.  Norton,  in 
his  "Ensign,"  says,  "Great  was  the  stir  and  noise  of  the 
tumultuous  town,"  "Yea,  all  in  an  uproar,  hearing  that 
we,  who  were  called  by  such  a  name  as  Quakers,  were  come 
into  these  parts.  A  great  fire  was  kindled,  and  the  hearts 
of  many  did  burn  within  them,  so  that  in  the  heat  some  said 
one  thing,  and  some  another,  but  the  most  part  knew  not 
what  was  the  matter." 

So  great  was  the  agitation  among  the  Puritan  settlers  that 
the  two  ministers  took  up  their  packs  and  began  the  march 
over  the  then  almost  trackless  country  to  Plymouth,  where 
they  announced  their  coming  by  rising  in  the  "ordinary"  or 
public  church,  after  the  service  and  preaching.  Some  of 
the  Puritans  endeavored  to  stop  them;  others  were  inclined 
to  argue  and  dispute,  while  many  were  desirous  of  hearing 
them.  But  the  priests  led  the  clamor  so  successfully  that 
the  authorities  ordered  them  to  leave  the  colony  of  Ply- 
mouth. A  large  and  threatening  crowd  gathered,  but  the 
Friends  informed  them  that  they  could  not  leave  the  colony 
until  they  had  made  another  visit  to  Sandwich ;  in  a  word, 
refused  to  go  and  demanded  the  nature  of  the  charges 
against  them.  The  constable  allowed  them  to  pass  to  their 
lodgings  unmolested,  but  their  enemies  held  a  meeting  at 
night,  and  on  the  following  morning  the  ministers  were  ar- 
rested and  taken  before  the  magistrates  and  questioned. 
But  the  authorities  could  find  no  reasonable  excuse  for  com- 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  381 


mitting  them  to  prison,  and  so  compromised  by  discharging 
them  and  ordered  them  "to  begone  out  of  their  colony;"  a 
mandate  the  Friends  refused  to  obey. 

They  left  Plymouth,  but  turned  in  the  direction  of  Sand- 
wich, a  fact  that  was  soon  reported  by  some  who  followed, 
and  a  constable  was  sent  after  them,  who  forced  them  to 
walk  six  miles  or  more  in  the  direction  of  Rhode  Island  and 
then  left  them,  whereupon  the  ministers  turned  soon  after 
and  walked  to  Sandwich  to  complete  their  labors.  Their 
re-appearance,  and  the  fact  that  they  had  made  many  con- 
verts, roused  the  priests,  and  they  demanded  that  the  Quakers 
be  arrested.  This  was  carried  out,  and  in  a  few  days 
they  were  again  taken  before  the  magistrate  at  Plymouth, 
charged  with  being  "ranters  and  dangerous  persons." 

This  time  the  governor  of  Plymouth  examined  them  in 
person,  and  again  "no  infraction  of  the  law  was  found 
against  them;"  yet,  to  silence  the  clamor  aroused  by  the 
Puritan  priests,  they  were  ordered  to  leave  the  colony. 
Sewell  says :  "It  appears  that  the  gospel  ministry  had  been 
instrumental  in  convincing  many  at  this  place  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  Friends,  a  circumstance  which  increased  the  alarm 
of  the  priests,  who  now  exerted  their  utmost  to  procure  their 
banishment.  The  urgent  appeal  was  effective,  and  the  gov- 
ernor, to  satisfy  them,  issued  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of 
Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland  as  extravagant  per- 
sons and  vagabonds,  to  be  brought  before  him  at  Ply- 
mouth." It  is  at  this  time  that  we  observe  the  first  inter- 
vention of  Friends,  and  here  began  the  series  of  outrages 
against  sympathizers  with  the  Quakers  that  constitutes  so 
black  a  page  in  New  England  history.  Some  of  the  meet- 
ings at  Sandwich  had  been  held  at  the  home  of  William 


382       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


Newland,  a  zealous  convert.  Between  him  and  the  har- 
assed ministers  there  had  sprung  up  a  warm  and  devoted 
friendship,  and  when  the  latter  were  arrested  and  were  ap- 
parently to  be  condemned  without  a  hearing,  William  New- 
land  sprang  to  his  feet  in  the  crowded  court  room  and  in- 
sisted that  Christopher  Holder's  demand  for  a  copy  of  the 
warrant  under  which  they  were  deprived  of  their  liberty 
should  be  complied  with,  protesting  that  it  was  illegal  and 
an  outrage  against  justice  not  to  accede  to  his  request.  The 
governor  was  indignant  at  this  bold  partisanship,  and  forth- 
with fined  the  brave  Newland  ten  shillings  and  severely  re- 
buked him. 

Christopher  Holder  and  his  friend  were  now  arraigned 
before  the  court  of  Plymouth,  the  priests  appearing  against 
them,  and  again  the  magistrates  informed  them  that  there 
was  a  law  forbidding  them  to  remain  in  the  colony.  To 
this  Christopher  Holder  replied  that,  "being  in  the  Lord's 
service,  he  could  not  promise  to  leave."  Highly  incensed, 
the  officers  issued  a  warrant  for  their  expulsion,  and  told 
them  that  if  they  returned  again  they  would  be  whipped  as 
vagabonds."  The  following  is  a  copy  of  this  warrant,  tak- 
en from  the  colonial  records,  dated  at  Plymouth,  August 
31,  1657: 

"To  the  Under-Marshal  of  the  Jurisdiction  of  Plymouth, 
"Whereas,  there  hath  been  two  extravagant  persons,  pro- 
fessing themselves  Quakers,  at  the  town  of  Plymouth,  who, 
according  to  order,  may  not  be  permitted  to  abide  within 
the  liberty  of  this  jurisdiction.  These  are  therefore  in  the 
name  of  his  business,  the  Lord  Proctector  of  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Ireland,  to  will  and  command  you  forthwith,  on 
receipt  hereof,  to  convey  the  said  persons,  viz.,  Christopher 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  383 

Holder  and  John  Copeland,  unto  the  utmost  bounds  of  our 
Jurisdiction.    Whereof  fail  not  at  your  peril." 

In  accordance  with  this,  the  under-marshal  marched  them 
five  miles  in  the  direction  of  Rhode  Island,  and  left  them  in 
the  forest,  without  food  or  shelter.  Rhode  Island  at  this 
early  time  afforded  refuge  to  the  oppressed,  and  the  two 
men  were  welcomed  in  that  colony. 

Holder  has  been  criticised  by  some  historians,  who  have 
attempted  to  defend  Endicott  and  the  inquisitors  of  the 
time,  who  have  said  that  to  enter  the  churches  of  the  Puri- 
tans, and  address  the  congregations  and  endeavor  to  make 
converts,  was  little  less  than  an  outrage,  and  was  sufficient 
reason  for  the  outbreaks  against  the  Quakers.  These  writ- 
ers are,  to  say  the  least,  ignorant  of  the  methods  and  customs 
of  the  day.  After  the  service  of  the  priest,  anyone  was  al- 
lowed to  speak,  and  Christopher  Holder  merely  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  custom.  John  Cotton,  a  Puritan  pastor  of 
Boston,  thus  described  the  degree  of  liberty  allowed  in  1657, 
as  quoted  by  Bowden:  "When  there  be  more  prophets  as 
pastors  and  teachers  they  may  prophesy  two  or  three,  and  if 
the  time  permit  the  elders  may  call  any  other  of  the  breth- 
ren, whether  of  the  same  church,  or  any  other^  to  speak  a 
word  of  exhortation  to  the  people,  and  for  the  better  edify- 
ing of  a  man's  self,  or  others,  it  may  be  lawful  for  any 
{young  or  old)  save  any  women  to  ask  questions  at  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets'' 

In  1643  the  following  declaration  of  the  faith  and  order 
of  the  Baptist  and  Congregational  churches  was  issued, 
which  bears  upon  the  point  at  issue : 

"Although  it  is  incumbent  upon  the  pastors  and  teachers 
of  the  churches  to  be  instant  in  preaching  the  word,  by  way 


384       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


of  office ;  yet  the  work  of  preaching  the  word  is  not  so  pecul- 
iarly confined  to  them,  but  that  others  also  gifted  and  filled 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  for  it,  and  approved,  being  by  lawful 
ways  and  means  in  the  providence  of  God  called  thereto 
may,  quickly,  ordinarily  and  constantly  perform  it,  so  that 
they  give  themselvees  up  thereto." 

Robert  Barclay  states  that  the  English  Independents 
"also  go  so  far  as  to  affirm  that  any  gifted  brother,  as  they 
call  them,  if  he  finds  himself  qualified  thereto,  may  instruct, 
exhort  and  preach  in  the  church."  Cromwell,  in  1650, 
threw  open  the  pulpits  of  the  rigid  Presbyterian  Church  to 
"all  intruders,"  and,  when  protest  was  made,  he  replied: 
"We  look  upon  ministers  as  helpers  of,  not  lords  over,  the 
faith  of  God's  people.  Where  do  you  find  in  Scripture  that 
preaching  is  exclusively  your  functions?  Are  3^ou  troubled 
that  Christ  is  preached*?  Doth  it  scandalize  you,  the  re- 
formed churches  and  Scotland  in  particular?  Is  it  against 
the  Covenant?  Away  with  the  Covenant,  if  it  be  so!  I 
thought  the  Covenant  and  these  men  would  have  been 
willing  that  any  should  speak  good  of  the  name  of  Christ; 
if  not,  it  is  no  covenant  of  God's  approving,  nor  the  kirk  you 
mention,  the  spouse  of  Christ."  (Cromwell's  Letters  and 
Speeches,  by  Thomas  Carlyle,  Vol.  I,  p.  61.)  It  is  on 
record  that,  in  1656,  Dr.  Gunning,  afterward  regius  profes- 
sor of  Divinity  at  Cambridge  and  bishop  of  Ely,  went  into 
the  congregation  of  John  Riddle,  the  father  of  English  Uni- 
tarians, and  began  a  dispute  with  him.  George  Fox  was  a 
frequent  visitor  at  the  "steeplehouse."  On  very  rare  occa- 
sions he  imitated  the  example  of  the  bishop,  but  it  was  his 
custom  to  wait  quietly  until  the  minister  had  ended,  when 
he  would  often  be  invited  to  speak. 


r 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  385 


From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  a  custom  of  the  time 
for  any  gifted  man  to  rise  and  preach  in  a  "steeplehouse" 
after  the  regular  service  had  ended,  and  Christopher  Holder 
was  but  following  an  established  precedent  when  he  entered 
the  public  places  of  worship  in  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts 
colony  and  preached  to  the  people  upon  the  completion  of 
the  service. 

There  is  no  reliable  evidence  in  Colonial  History  that  any 
Friend  ever  made  an  attempt  to  disturb  a  Puritan  meeting 
in  a  riotous  fashion.  It  was  the  strong  undercurrent  of  re- 
ligious intolerance  which  cropped  out  among  the  Puritans 
at  the  slightest  innovation  in  religious  forms  and  belief,  that 
caused  the  trouble.  The  Puritans  are  popularly  supposed 
to  have  come  to  America  to  enjoy  "religious  liberty,"  but 
they  absolutely  refused  others  participation  in  the  divine 
right.  Bowden  says:  "A  strong  and  deep  conviction  was 
vested  in  their  (Friends)  minds  that  the  prevailing  religious 
systems  were  essentially  opposed  to  the  pure  and  spiritual 
religion  of  Christ.  They  were  not  less  fully  persuaded  of 
this,  nor,  it  may  be  added,  on  less  substantial  grounds,  than 
John  Huss,  or  Martin  Luther  was  of  the  anti-Christian  char- 
acter of  the  Romish  church.  They  believed  themselves  called 
upon  to  testify,  'in  the  name  of  the  Lord,'  against  a  system 
which  contained  so  woful  an  admixture  of  human  inven- 
tion." 

This  is  referred  to,  that  the  remarkable  persistence  of 
these  ministers  in  returning  to  the  fields  from  which  they 
had  been  driven  may  be  understood;  briefly,  they  exempli- 
fied the  highest  type  of  missionary  fervor,  and  sacrificed 
themselves  on  the  altar  of  their  convictions,  acts  which,  it 
25 


386      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


may  be  said,  were  not  peculiar  to  Friends  at  this  and  prev- 
ious periods. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  from  the  very  first  disting- 
uished for  its  tolerance,  afforded  a  literal  haven  for  the 
hunted  Quakers  in  the  following  days.  Christopher  Holder 
and  John  Copeland  made  many  converts  in  Sandwich  and 
Plymouth,  and  were  spreading  the  Word  in  the  colony  of 
Rhode  Island  so  rapidly  that  the  priests  and  rulers  in  Bos- 
ton became  alarmed,  and  so  worked  upon  the  superstitious 
fears  of  Governor  Endicott  that  he  entered  a  vigorous 
protest. 

So  thoroughly  had  the  doctrine  of  the  Friends  been  dis- 
seminated that  liberal  Puritans  were  joining  their  ranks 
everywhere,  and  even  as  early  as  August,  1657,  the  Friends 
constituted  a  "party,"  small  and  insignificant  numerically, 
strong  in  fearlessness  and  faith,  opposed  to  which  were  those 
fighting  for  the  ascendancy  of  Puritan  orthodoxy.  On  one 
side  was  Governor  Endicott,  the  priests,  magistrates  and 
authorities;  on  the  other,  Christopher  Holder,  John  Cope- 
land,  who  believed  they  were  called  to  a  duty  from  which 
there  was  no  turning.  Legions  they  had  none ;  their  human 
support,  their  converts,  and  a  few  Friends  in  Plymouth  and 
Sandwich.  But,  as  these  leaders  moved  on,  converts  seem 
to  have  sprung  up  in  their  path  like  wheat  after  the  sower, 
and  as  the  missionaries  announced  their  intention  of  going 
to  Boston,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  report  caused  no  small 
degree  of  alarm  and  excitement.  Bow  den  says :  "In  their 
(Puritan)  estimation  it  was  an  evil  of  such  magnitude,  and 
so  fraught  with  danger  to  the  true  interests  of  that  religion 
for  which  they  and  their  forefathers  had  suffered,  as  to  re- 
quire counteracting  measures  of  a  very  decided  character." 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  387 


This  took  the  form  of  a  movement  to  compel  the  colony  of 
Rhode  Island  to  join  with  Massachusetts  in  driving  out 
Holder  and  Copeland,  and,  on  September  12,  1657,  the 
commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  addressed  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island : 

''Gentlemen: — We  suppose  you  have  understood  that  the 
last  year  a  company  of  Quakers  arrived  in  Boston,  upon  no 
other  account  than  to  disperse  their  pernicious  opinions,  had 
they  not  been  prevented  by  the  prudent  care  of  the  govern- 
ment, who,  by  that  experience  they  had  of  them,  being  sen- 
sible of  the  danger  that  might  befall  the  Christian  religion 
here  professed,  by  suffering  such  to  be  received  or  continued 
in  the  country,  presented  the  same  unto  the  Commissioners 
at  the  meeting  in  Plymouth ;  who,  upon  that  occasion,  com- 
mended It  to  the  general  courts  of  the  United  Colonies,  that 
all  Quakers,  Ranters,  and  such  notorious  heretics,  might  be 
prohibited  coming  among  us;  and  that  if  such  should  arise 
am.ongst  ourselves,  speedy  care  might  be  taken  to  remove 
them;  (and  as  we  are  informed)  the  several  jurisdictions 
have  made  provisions  accordingly;  but  it  is  by  experience 
found  that  means  will  fall  short  without  further  care  by 
reason  of  your  admission  and  receiving  such,  from  whence 
they  may  have  opportunity  to  create  in  amongst  us,  or  means 
to  infuse  and  spread  their  accursed  tenets  to  the  great  trouble 
of  the  colonies,  if  not  to  the  .  .  .  professed  in  them; 
notwithstanding  any  care  that  hath  been  hitherto  taken  to 
prevent  the  same;  whereof  we  cannot  but  be  very  sensible 
and  think  no  care  too  great  to  preserve  us  from  such  a  pest, 
the  contagion  whereof  (if  received)  within  your  colony, 
were  dangerous  to  be  diffused  to  the  others  by  means  of  the 
intercourse,  especially  to  the  places  of  trade  amongst  us; 


388      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


which  we  desire  may  be  with  safety  continued  between  us; 
we  therefore  make  it  our  request,  that  you  and  the  rest  of  the 
colonies,  take  such  order  herein  that  your  neighbors  may  be 
freed  from  that  danger.  That  you  remove  these  Quakers 
that  have  been  received,  and  for  the  future  prohibit  their 
coming  amongst  you;  whereunto  the  rule  of  charity  imto 
yourselves  and  us  (we  conceive)  doth  oblige  you;  wherein 
if  you  should  we  hope  you  will  not  be  wanting;  yet  we  could 
not  but  signify  this  our  desire ;  and  further  declare,  that  we 
apprehend  that  it  will  be  our  duty  seriously  to  consider, 
what  provision  God  may  call  us  to  make  to  prevent  the 
aforesaid  mischief ;  and  further  for  our  further  guidance  and 
direction  herein,  we  desire  you  to  impart  your  mind  and 
resolution  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  which  as- 
sembleth  the  14th  of  October  next.  We  have  not  further 
to  trouble  you  at  present,  but  to  assure  you  we  desire  to  con- 
tinue your  loving  friends  and  neighbors  the  Commissioners 
of  the  United  Colonies. 
"Boston,  September  I2th,  1657." 

This  letter  was  submitted  by  the  governor  of  Rhode 
Island  to  the  Court  of  Trials,  held  at  Providence,  August 
15th  following,  and  the  reply  is  a  credit  to  the  intelligence 
and  discernment  of  the  followers  of  Roger  Williams  and  the 
people  of  Rhode  Island.  The  colony  refused  point  blank 
to  be  a  party  with  Endicott  to  the  abridgement  of  the  relig- 
ious liberty  of  any  citizen.  The  law  of  their  colony  was 
"that  none  be  accounted  a  delinquent  for  doctrine"  (Enact- 
ment of  1641),  and  that  "they  had  resolved  that  no  settler 
or  stranger  within  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction  should  be 
persecuted  for  whatever  opinions  of  religion  he  might  either 
hold  or  teach."    This  was  the  tenor  of  their  immediate 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  389 


verbal  reply  to  Endicott's  messenger.  The  official  and 
well-written  answer  was  not  given  until  January,  1658,  a 
reproof  in  itself.    The  reply  is  as  follows: 

'Trom  the  General  Assembl}^  to  the  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies. 

"Honoured  Gentlemen, — There  hath  been  presented  to 
our  view,  by  our  honoured  president,  a  letter  bearing  date 
September  25th  last,  subscribed  by  the  honoured  gentlemen. 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  concerning  a  com- 
pany of  people  (lately  arrived  in  these  parts  of  the  world), 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Quakers;  who  are  gener- 
ally conceived  pernicious,  either  intentionally,  or  at  least- 
wise in  effect,  even  to  the  corrupting  of  good  manners,  and 
disturbing  the  common  peace,  and  societies,  of  the  places 
where  they  arise  or  resort  unto,  &c. 

''Now,  whereas  freedom  of  different  consciences,  to  be 
protected  from  enforcements  was  the  principal  ground  of  our 
charter,  both  with  respect  to  our  humble  suit  for  it,  as  also 
the  true  intent  of  the  honourable  and  renowned  Parliament 
of  England,  in  granting  the  same  unto  us;  which  freedom 
we  still  prize  as  the  greatest  happiness  that  men  can  possess 
in  this  world ;  therefore,  we  shall,  for  the  preservation  of  our 
civil  peace  and  order,  the  more  seriously  take  notice  that 
these  people,  and  any  other  that  are  here,  or  shall  come 
among  us,  be  impartially  required,  and  to  our  utmost  con- 
strained to  perform  all  duties  requisite  towards  the  main- 
taining the  dignity  of  his  highness,  and  the  government  of 
that  most  renowned  Commonwealth  of  England,  in  this 
colony;  which  is  most  happily  included  under  the  same 
dominions  and  we  are  so  graciously  taken  into  protection 
thereof.    And  in  case  they,  the  said  people,  called  Quakers, 


390      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 

which  are  here,  or  shall  arise,  or  come  among  us,  do  refuse  to 
submit  to  the  doing  of  all  duties  aforesaid,  as  training, 
watching,  and  such  other  engagements  as  are  upon  members 
of  civil  societies,  for  the  preservation  of  the  same  in  justice 
and  peace;  then  we  determine,  yea,  and  we  resolve  (how- 
ever) to  take  and  make  use  of  the  first  opportunity  to  inform 
our  agent  residing  in  England,  that  he  may  humbly  present 
the  matter  (as  touching  the  considerations  premised,  con- 
cerning the  aforesaid  people  called  Quakers),  unto  the  su- 
preme authority  of  England,  humbly  craving  their  advice 
and  order,  how  to  carry  ourselves  in  any  further  respect  to- 
wards those  people — that  therewithal  there  may  be  no  dam- 
age, or  infringement  of  that  chief  principle  in  our  charter 
concerning  freedom  of  conscience.  And  we  also  are  so 
much  the  more  encouraged  to  make  our  addresses  unto  the 
Lord  Protector,  for  highness  and  government  aforesaid,  for 
that  we  understand  there  are,  or  have  been,  many  of  the 
aforesaid  people  suffered  to  live  in  England;  yea,  even  in 
the  heart  of  the  nation.  And  thus  with  our  truly  thankful 
acknowledgements  of  the  honourable  care  of  the  honoured 
gentlemen.  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  for  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  whole  country,  as  is  expressed  in 
their  most  friendly  letter,  we  shall  at  present  take  leave  and 
rest.  Yours,  most  affectionately  desirous  of  your  honors 
and  welfare, 

"John  Sandford, 

"Clerk  of  the  Assembly." 
"From  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Colony  of  Providence 
Plantation, 

"To  the  much  honoured  John  Endicott,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts.    To  be  also  imparted  to  the  honoured  Com- 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  391 


missioners  of  the  United  Colonies  at  their  next  meeting; 
these." 

The  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island,  feeling  that  it 
was  being  criticised  for  extending  toleration  to  the  Quakers, 
considered  it  advisable  to  acquaint  their  representatives  in 
England  with  the  situation,  and  the  following  is  an  extract 
from  the  letter: 

"The  last  year  we  had  laden  you  with  much  employment, 
which  we  were  then  put  upon,  by  reason  of  some  too  re- 
fractory among  ourselves;  wherein  we  appealed  unto  you 
for  advice,  for  the  more  public  manifestation  of  it  with  re- 
spect to  our  superiors.  But  our  intelligence  it  seems  fell 
short,  in  the  great  loss  of  the  ship,  which  is  conceived  here 
to  be  cast  away.  We  have  now  a  new  occasion,  given  by  an 
old  spirit,  because  of  a  sort  of  people,  called  by  the  name  of 
Quakers,  who  are  come  amongst  us,  and  have  raised  up  div- 
ers, who  seem  at  present  to  be  of  their  spirit,  whereat  the 
colonies  about  us  seem  to  be  offended  with  us,  because  the 
said  people  have  their  liberty  amongst  us,  as  are  entertained 
into  our  houses,  or  into  our  assemblies.  And  for  the  pres- 
ent, we  have  no  just  cause  to  charge  them  with  the  breach 
of  the  civil  peace;  only  they  are  constantly  going  forth 
among  them  about  us,  and  vex  and  trouble  them  in  point  of 
their  religion  and  spiritual  state,  though  they  return  with 
many  a  foul  scar  on  their  bodies  for  the  same.  And  the  of- 
fense our  neighbors  take  against  us  is,  because  we  take  not 
some  course  against  the  said  people,  either  to  expel  them 
from  among  us,  or  take  such  courses  against  them  as  they 
themselves  do,  who  are  in  fear  lest  their  religion  should  be 
corrupted  by  them.  Concerning  which  displeasure  that 
they  seem  to  take  it  was  expressed  to  us  in  a  solemn  letter, 


392       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


written  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  at  their 
sitting,  as  though  they  would  bring  us  in  to  act  according  to 
their  scantling  or  else  take  some  course  to  do  us  greater  dis- 
pleasure. A  copy  of  which  letter  we  have  herewith  sent 
unto  you,  wherein  you  may  perceive  how  they  express  them- 
selves. As  also  we  have  herewith  sent  our  present  answer 
unto  them,  to  give  you  what  light  we  may  in  this  matter. 
There  is  one  clause  in  their  letter,  which  plainly  implies  a 
threat,  though  covertly  expressed: 

"Sir,  this  is  our  earnest  and  present  request  unto  you  in 
this  matter,  as  you  may  perceive  in  our  answer  to  the  United 
Colonies,  that  we  fly,  as  to  our  refuge  in  all  civil  respects,  to 
his  highness,  and  honourable  council,  as  not  being  subject 
to  any  others  in  matter  of  our  civil  state;  so  may  it  please 
you  to  have  an  eye  and  ear  open  in  case  our  adversaries 
should  seek  to  undermine  us  in  our  privileges  granted  unto 
us,  and  to  plead  our  case  in  such  sort  as  we  may  not  be  com- 
pelled to  exercise  any  civil  power  over  men's  conscience,  so 
long  as  human  order,  in  point  of  civility,  are  not  corrupted 
and  violated,  which  our  neighbors  about  us  do  frequently 
practice,  whereof  many  of  us  have  large  experience,  and  do 
judge  it  to  be  no  less  than  a  point  of  absolute  cruelty." 

The  labors  of  Christopher  Holder  at  this  time  were  the 
cause  of  much  excitement,  and  as  he  moved  northward  this 
increased,  culminating  in  acts  which  disgrace  the  pages  of 
Colonial  history.  It  would  appear  that,  in  passing  from 
Sandwich,  Holder  and  Copeland  held  services  and  made 
converts  in  all  the  towns — Plymouth,  Duxbury,  Mansfield, 
Dedham,  Charleston,  Cambridge  and  Lynn — and  about  the 
15th  of  July  they  reached  Salem.  Christopher  Holder  was 
invited  to  make  his  home  during  his  visit  at  the  house  of 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  393 


Lawrence  and  Cassandra  Southwick,  an  act  of  hospitality 
which  ultimately  caused  the  death  of  these  sincere  Friends  in 
their  banishment  to  Shelter  Island. 

The  two  missionaries  held  a  series  of  meetings  and  made 
many  converts  in  Salem.  From  Norton's  "Ensign"  this 
joint  reference  is  made  to  their  ministry  here:  "Having 
obtained  mercy  from  God  and  being  baptized  in  his  coven- 
ant Jesus  Christ,  we  (Christopher  Holder  and  John  Cope- 
land)  preached  freely  unto  them  the  things  we  had  seen  and 
heard,  and  our  hands  had  handled,  which  as  an  engrafted 
word  took  place  in  them,  such  as  never  can  be  routed  out,  so 
that  our  hearers  in  a  short  time  became  our  fellow  sufferers." 
On  the  21st  of  July,  1657,  Christopher  Holder  entered  the 
First  Church  of  Salem,  which  it  is  supposed  by  some,  now 
stands  in  the  rear  of  Essex  Institute.  Holder  listened  to  the 
sermon,  and  when  the  priest  had  concluded  and  the  time  had 
arrived  for  la)niien  to  speak,  if  they  so  desired,  he  rose  and 
addressed  the  congregation.  His  fame  had  preceded  him, 
and  many  desired  to  hear  him;  but  Salem  was  the  home  of 
Governor  Endicott,  the  hot-bed  of  irrationalism,  and  the 
priest  uttered  so  vigorous  a  protest  that  his  partisans  were 
aroused  to  "much  fury,"  and  as  Holder  disregarded  the  in- 
terruptions and  continued,  one  of  the  commissioners  sprang 
forward,  seized  him  by  the  hair  and  jerked  him  violently 
backward,  at  the  same  time  attempting  to  force  a  handker- 
chief or  a  glove  into  his  mouth.* 

*What  Christopher  Holder  said  history  has  not  preserved,  but  on 
a  similar  occasion  in  England,  George  Fox  entered  a  church,  sat  down 
and  listened.  The  rector  announced  his  text:  "Ho,  Everyone  that 
thirsteth,  come  ye,  buy  without  money  and  without  price."  This  was 
too  much  for  the  militant  Fox;  rising  he  cried  out,  "Come  down,  thou 
deceiver!  Dost  thou  bid  people  to  come  to  the  waters  of  life  freely 
and  without  price  and  yet  thou  takest  three  hundred  pounds  a  year 
from  them?" 


394       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


This  sudden  and  cowardly  attack  from  behind  aroused  in- 
tense excitement.  The  members  of  the  congregation  started 
to  their  feet,  some  protesting,  others  encouraging  the  com- 
missioner, who  dragged  the  unresisting  Quaker  toward  the 
door,  still  endeavoring  to  choke  him.  Believing  that  Holder 
was  in  danger  of  his  life,  one  man  braved  public  senti- 
ment and  barred  the  way,  tearing  the  commissioner's  arm 
from  the  minister's  throat,  and  vigorously  protested  against 
the  injustice  of  the  "furious"  action  of  the  commissioner 
against  a  defenseless  man.  This  was  Samuel  Shattuck,  of 
Salem,  whose  descendants  still  live  there,  and  who  are  by 
marriage  connected  with  the  descendants  of  Christopher 
Holder  in  the  present  centur}\  This  incident  is  dwelt  upon 
by  all  contemporary  and  later  writers — Norton,  Bishop, 
Sewell,  Bowden,  Whittier  and  others,  hence  has  attained 
historical  significance,  and  was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of 
outrages  which  disgraced  New  England  during  the  follow- 
ing years.  So  intense  was  the  feeling  aroused  against  Sam- 
uel Shattuck  for  attempting  to  defend  Christopher  Holder 
that  he  was  arrested  at  once,  on  the  charge  of  being  "a  friend 
to  the  Quakers."  Holder  was  also  arrested,  and  the  fol- 
lowing day  they  were  sent  to  Boston.  They  were  examined 
separately,  Bellingham,  deputy  governor,  and  Rawson, 
Endicott's  secretar\^,  examining  Holder,  while  the  elder  and 
deacon  of  the  place  examined  Shattuck,  hoping  to  detect 
them  making  different  statements.  "But,"  wrote  the  pris- 
oners, "we,  abiding  in  the  truth,  spake  one  thing,  so  that  they 
had  no  advantage  against  us,  neither  could  take  hold  of  any- 
thing we  had  spoken." 

Bellingham,  disappointed  at  not  tripping  them,  said 
"that  their  answers  were  elusive,  and  that  the  devil  had 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  395 


taught  them  a  deal  of  subtilty\"  Christopher  Holder  and 
John  Copeland  were  now  brought  before  Governor  Endi- 
cott,  and,  after  the  farce  of  a  trial  had  been  undergone,  they 
were  sentenced  according  to  the  laws  which  had  been  passed 
for  their  benefit  the  previous  year,  to  "receive  thirty  lashes." 
The  sentence  was  carried  out  on  Boston  Common,  the  public 
executioner  being  the  agent.  The  prisoners'  backs  were 
bared  and  their  anns  bound  to  a  post.  The  executioner,  in 
the  language  of  Bishop,  used  a  three-corded  knotted 
whip,  and  to  make  sure  of  his  blows,  measured  his  ground 
"and  fetched  his  blows  with  all  his  might."  Thirty  stripes 
were  given,  until  the  backs  of  the  men  were  cut  and  stream- 
ing with  blood  that  made  them  horrible  spectacles,  yet  not  a 
groan  or  word  of  reproach  came  from  their  lips.  So  terrible 
was  the  punishment  inflicted  that  the  spectators  were  hor- 
rified, and  one  woman,  according  to  Sewell,  "fell  as  dead." 
"Torn  and  lacerated,"  says  Bowden,  "they  were  conveyed 
to  their  prison  cell.  Here,  without  any  bedding,  or  even 
straw,  to  lie  upon,  the  inhuman  gaoler  kept  them  for  three 
days,  without  food  or  drink,  and  in  this  dismal  abode,  often 
exposed  to  damp  and  cold,  were  these  faithful  men  confined 
for  the  space  of  nine  weeks."  "AVe  may  wonder,"  contin- 
ues Bowden,  "that  under  such  aggravated  cruelties  their 
lives  were  spared,  but  He  for  whose  holy  cause  they  thus 
suffered  was  near  at  hand  to  support  and  console  them.  His 
ancient  promise  was  fulfilled  in  their  experience,  and  they 
rejoiced  in  the  comforting  assurance  of  His  living  power." 

Such  were  the  conditions  of  religious  liberty  in  Boston 
two  hundred  and  forty-five  vears  ago.  Samuel  Shattuck 
was  imprisoned,  but  was  finally  released  on  giving  a  bond 
of  twenty  pounds  to  answer  the  charge,  "and  not  to  assemble 


396      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


with  any  of  the  people  called  Quakers  at  their  meetings." 
We  next  hear  of  him  as  a  convert  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Friends,  and  he  became  a  staunch  friend  of  Christopher 
Holder.  I  found  his  grave  in  the  Salem,  Charter  Street, 
burying  ground,  and  upon  the  ancient,  half-buried  headstone 
is  the  following  inscription,  which  I  copied  from  the  records 
of  inscriptions  in  the  Boston  Library: 

"Here  lyeth  buried  ye  body  of  Samuel  Shattuck  aged  69 
years,  who  departed  this  life  in  ye  sixth  day  of  June  1689. 
He  was  present  at  ye  Friends  meeting  when  Christopher 
Holder  attempted  to  speak,  and  he  endeavored  to  prevent 
their  thrusting  a  handkerchief  into  Holder's  mouth  lest  it 
should  have  choken  him,  for  which  attack  he  was  carried 
to  Boston  and  imprisoned  until  he  had  given  bond  to  answer 
at  the  next  court  and  not  to  come  to  any  Quaker  meetings." 

Alarmed  at  the  rapid  increase  among  the  Friends,  the 
priests  and  others  went  to  the  greatest  extremes  to  arouse 
public  prejudice  against  the  prisoners.  They  endeavored  to 
inflame  the  public  by  stating  that  Christopher  Holder  and 
his  friend  were  possessed  with  devils,  and  the  most  exagger- 
ated stories  were  related  by  talebearers  and  gossipmongers 
of  the  city,  much  to  their  discredit,  resulting  in  arousing  the 
masses  against  them.  Bowden  says :  "The  distorted  views 
of  Quaker  tenets,  which  were  industriously  circulated 
throughout  New  England  in  justification  of  the  cruelties 
practiced,  could  scarcely  fail  to  produce  such  a  result.  In 
the  American  colonies,  as  well  as  in  England,  calumny  and 
misrepresentation  were  too  generally  favorite  weapons  of  the 
enemies  of  the  Society." 

While  lying  almost  helpless  in  jail,  Christopher  Holder 
replied  to  the  charges  of  the  enemies  of  Friends  in  a  docu- 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  397 


ment*  that,  in  its  dignified  language  and  its  fervor  and 
spirit,  takes  place  as  the  most  prominent  document  issued  in 
America  up  to  this  time.  It  was  the  religious  declaration  of 
independence  of  America,  and,  singularly  enough,  recalls 
the  famous  political  document  issued  in  1776.  Bowden 
says:  "The  document  issued,  an  imperfect  copy  of  which 
has  been  preserved,  is  rendered  the  more  interesting  as  being, 
it  is  believed,  the  first  written  exposition  of  the  doctrinal 
views  of  the  Society,  and  containing,  as  it  does,  clear  evi- 
dence of  the  soundness  of  the  views  of  our  early  Friends,  it 
is  additionally  valuable." 

Richard  Doudney's  name  appears  on  this  document.  He 
had  left  his  companions  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  had  decid- 
ed to  join  Copeland  and  Holder,  and  had  reached  Dedham 
when  he  was  apprehended  as  a  Quaker,  sent  under  guard  to 
Boston,  and  thrown  into  jail  with  them;  and  so  became  a 
signer  to  the  first  declaration  of  faith,  either  in  England  or 
America.    The  declaration  is  as  follows: 

'A  DECLARATION  OF  FAITH, 

And  an  exhortation  to  Obedience  thereto,  issued  by 
Christopher  Holder,  John  Copeland  and  Richard  Doudney, 
while  in  prison  at  Boston  in  New  England,  1657. 

"Whereas,  it  is  reported  by  them  that  have  not  a  bridle 
to  tiieir  tongues,  that  we,  who  are  by  the  world  called  Quak- 

*As  the  original  Declaration  of  the  Society  of  Friends  (the  first  in 
New  England  being  dated  1657)  this  is  a  most  interesting  and  valuable 
historical  document.  The  author  regrets  that  all  efforts  to  obtain  the 
original  have  failed.  The  latter  document  in  some  way  found  its  way 
into  the  hands  of  a  distant  relative  of  Goold  Brown,  of  Lynn,  v/hose 
ancestors  were  Friends  of  Pembroke,  Plymouth  Co.,  Mass.,  and 
through  him  a  copy  reached  Bowden,  the  historian,  to  whom  the 
author  is  indebted. 


398       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


ers,  are  blasphemers,  heretics,  and  deceivers;  therefore,  we, 
who  are  here  in  prison,  shall  in  a  few  words,  in  truth  and 
plainness,  declare  unto  all  people  that  may  see  this,  the 
ground  of  our  religion,  and  the  faith  that  we  contend  for, 
and  the  cause  wherefor  we  suffer. 

"Therefore,  when  you  read  our  words,  let  the  meek  spirit 
bear  rule,  and  weigh  them  in  the  balance  equal,  and  stand 
out  of  prejudice,  in  the  light  that  judgeth  all  things,  and 
measureth  and  manifesteth  all  things. 

"As  (for  us)  we  do  believe  in  the  only  true  and  living  God, 
the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  made  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  the  sea  and  all  things  in  them  con- 
tained, and  doth  uphold  all  things  that  he  hath  created  by 
the  word  of  his  power.  Who,  at  sundry  tim.es,  and  in  divers 
manners,  spake  in  times  past  to  our  fathers,  by  the  prophets, 
but  in  these  last  days  he  hath  spoken  by  his  Son,  whom  he 
hath  made  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  he  made  the  world. 
The  which  Son  is  that  Jesus  Christ  that  was  born  of  the 
Virgin;  who  suffered  for  our  offenses,  and  is  risen  again  for 
our  justification,  and  is  ascended  into  the  highest  heavens, 
and  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father.  Even  in 
him  do  we  believe;  who  is  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  And  in  him  do  we  trust 
alone  for  salvation;  by  whose  blood  we  are  washed  from  sin; 
through  whom  we  have  access  to  the  Father  with  boldness, 
being  justified  by  faith  believing  in  his  name.  Who  hath 
sent  forth  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  wit,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  that 
proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son;  by  which  we  are 
sealed  and  adopted  sons  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
From  the  which  spirit,  the  Scriptures  of  truth  were  given 
forth,  as,  saith  the  Apostle  Peter,  'Holy  men  of  God 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  399 


spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,'  The  which 
were  written  for  our  admonition,  on  whom  the  ends  of  the 
world  are  come;  and  are  profitable  for  the  man  of  God,  to 
reprove,  and  to  exhort,  and  to  admonish,  as  the  Spirit  of 
God  bringeth  them  unto  him,  and  openeth  them  in  him,  and 
giveth  him  the  understanding  of  them. 

"So  that  before  all  (men)  we  do  declare  that  we  do  be- 
lieve in  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  according  as 
they  are  (declared  of  in  the)  Scriptures;  and  the  Scriptures 
own  to  be  a  true  declaration  of  the  Father,  Son  and  Spirit; 
in  (which)  is  declared  what  was  in  the  beginning,  what  was 
present,  and  was  to  come. 

"Therefore,  all  (ye)  people  in  whom  honesty  is,  stand 
still  and  consider.  Believe  not  them  who  say,  Report,  and 
we  will  report  it — that  say.  Come,  let  us  smite  them  with 
the  tongue;  but  try  all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is 
good.  Again  we  say,  take  heed  of  believing  and  giving 
credit  to  reports;  for  know  that  the  truth  in  all  ages  of  the 
world,  hated,  persecuted,  and  imprisoned,  under  the  name  of 
heretics,  blasphemers,  and" 

(Here  part  of  the  paper  is  torn  off,  and  it  can  only  be 
known,  by  an  unintelligible  shred,  that  fourteen  lines  are 
lost.    We  read  again  as  follows:) 

"that  showeth  you  the  secrets  of  your  hearts,  and  the  deeds 
that  are  not  good.  Therefore,  while  you  have  light,  believe 
in  the  light,  that  ye  may  be  children  of  light;  for,  as  you 
love  it  and  obey  it,  it  will  lead  to  repentance,  bring  you 
to  know  Him  in  whom  is  remission  of  sins,  in  whom  God  is 
well  pleased;  who  will  give  you  an  entrance  into  the  king- 
dom of  God,  an  inheritance  amongst  them  that  are  sancti- 
fied.   For  this  is  the  desire  of  our  souls  for  all  that  have  the 


400      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


least  breathings  after  God,  that  they  may  come  to  know 
Him  in  deed  and  in  truth,  and  find  his  power  in  and  with 
them  to  keep  them  from  falling,  and  to  present  them  fault- 
less before  the  throne  of  his  glory;  who  is  the  strength  and 
life  of  all  them  that  put  their  trust  in  Him;  who  upholdeth 
all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power;  who  is  God  over  all, 
blessed  for  ever.  Amen. 

"Thus  we  remain  friends  to  all  that  fear  the  Lord;  who 
are  sufferers,  not  for  evil  doing,  but  for  bearing  testimony  to 
the  truth,  in  obedience  to  the  Lord  God  of  life ;  unto  whom 
we  commit  our  cause  who  is  risen  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 
innocent,  and  to  help  him  that  hath  no  help  on  the  earth; 
who  will  be  avenged  on  all  his  enemies,  and  will  repay  the 
proud  doers. 

"Christopher  Holder, 
"John  Copeland, 
"Richard  Doudney. 
"From  the  House  of  Correction  the  ist  of  the  Eighth 
Month,  1657,  in  Boston." 

The  Puritans  wasted  no  sympthy  on  the  Quaker  men  or 
women.  When  MarA^  Clark  reached  Boston  in  1657  she  was 
arrested,  stripped  of  her  clothing  and  given  "twenty  strokes 
with  a  three-corded  whip  laid  on  with  fury,"  after  which 
she  was  kept  in  a  cold,  damp  cell  for  three  months.  Rich- 
ard Doudney,  one  of  the  "Woodhouse"  passengers,  was  sent 
from  Dedham  to  Boston  and  given  thirty  lashes  to  remind 
him  that  Quakers  were  not  welcome.  Humphrey  Norton 
demanded  an  examination,  which  was  given  him,  and  he 
so  cleverly  stated  his  case  and  that  of  the  Quakers  that,  not- 
withstanding the  bias  of  Endicott,  the  magistrates  found 
him  guilty  of  no  crime,  so  they  compromised  by  banishing 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  401 


him,  an  officer  marching  him  fifty  miles  in  the  direction  of 
Rhode  Island,  where  he  found  John  Copeland  and  Sarah 
Gibbons. 

A  party  now  came  from  the  Barbados,  including  John 
Rous,  the  son  of  an  officer  of  the  army,  William  Leddra  and 
Thomas  Harris.  Humphrey  Norton  was  a  prisoner  in  New 
Haven,  and  was  gagged  in  court  with  a  large  iron  key  when 
he  attempted  to  explain  his  case.  After  a  trial  of  many 
days  he  was  found  guilty  of  being  a  Quaker  and  sentenced 
to  be  first  given  thirty-six  stripes,  stripped  in  the  stocks, 
which  he  bore  with  such  courage  that  a  mob  threatened  to 
interfere  and  the  officers  looked  at  the  Quaker  with  amaze- 
ment and  some  with  fear,  as  while  he  was  covered  with 
blood  and  cut  with  deep  gashes,  he  made  no  complaint,  tell- 
ing the  jailer  that  "his  body  was  as  if  it  had  been  covered 
with  balm."  After  this,  they  fastened  his  hands  in  the 
stocks  and  denouncing  him  as  a  heretic,  branded  him  with 
the  letter  H,  the  victim  in  the  meantime  praying  for  his  ac- 
cusers. They  now  offered  to  free  him,  if  he  would  pay  the 
expenses  of  his  arrest;  but  Norton  refused,  saying  that  if  it 
were  but  two  pence,  he  would  not  pay  it,  nor  would  he  allow 
anyone  else  to  do  so,  as  he  was  an  innocent  man,  and  had 
•committed  no  crime.  Norton  was  finally  banished  and 
went  to  Rhode  Island  to  report  the  first  persecution  of 
Friends  in  Connecticut.  John  Rous  and  Norton  then  went 
to  Plymouth  and  began  to  preach,  but  were  at  once  thrown 
into  prison,  and  later  flogged  like  convicts.  This  treatment 
did  not  deter  others,  in  fact  it  seemed  to  encourage  them  to 
greater  endeavor,  and  soon  Wiliam  Brend,  Mary  Dyer  and 
Mary  Weatherhead  entered  New  Haven,  only  to  be  forced 
out  at  the  point  of  the  pike. 
26 


402       THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


John  Rous  and  John  Copeland  now  visited  New  Haven 
and  sought  out  the  Governor,  John  Winthrop,  and  attempted 
to  discuss  the  question  with  him.  As  a  result,  Connecti- 
cut, Massachusetts,  Plymouth  and  New  Haven,  the  princi- 
pal colonies,  joined  in  a  pact  to  fight  the  Quakers,  making  a 
common  cause  of  the  invasion. 

In  1658,  William  Leddra  and  Thomas  Harris  walked  to 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  while  Sarah  Gibbons  and  Dor- 
othy Waugh  proceeded  to  Massachusetts,  walking  every 
step,  through  what  was  then  an  Indian-infested  wilderness, 
without  trail  or  road.  So  it  will  be  seen  that  by  some  ar- 
rangement the  Quakers  were  continually  invading  the  closed 
colonies.  When  one  set  or  pair  were  banished,  another 
presently  took  its  place,  covering  the  ground  as  completely 
as  they  could.  Thomas  Harris  was  being  starved  in  Bos- 
ton jail.  On  the  sixth  day  he  was  given  twenty  strokes  with 
a  tarred  rope  and  discharged.  This  punishment,  with  such 
variety  as  the  jailer  could  invent,  was  given  to  every  Quaker 
arrested  or  found  in  the  colony.  William  Brend,  an  aged 
man,  was  given  horrible  treatment,  repeated  beatings, 
which  were  given  also  to  Norton,  Rous,  Leddra  and  Harris 
until  they  were  ready  to  succumb,  and  were  only  saved  by  a 
public  subscription  taken  up  by  inhabitants  of  the  City  of 
Boston  to  pay  their  fines  and  send  them  away.  Josiah  Cole, 
a  cousin  of  Christopher  Holder,  from  near  Bristol,  arrived 
in  America  in  1658  and  travelled  extensively  over  the  coun- 
try preaching.  The  story  of  all  these  missionaries  is  one  of 
continual  arrest,  banishment  and  beatings,  all  of  which  had 
no  apparent  effect.  Sarah  Gibbons,  Dorothy  Waugh  and 
Harriet  Gardner  were  stripped  and  flogged.    Then  Kather- 


THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA  403 

ine  Scott,  *  a  sister  of  Anne  Marbury  Hutchinson,  a 
descendant  of  Dryden,  poet  laureate,  walked  to  Boston  to 
remonstrate  against  the  barbarous  treatment  of  Holder, 
Copeland  and  Robinson,  whose  ears  were  cut  off,  for  which 
she  was  flogged  and  sent  off.  Arthur  Howland  of  North- 
field  was  heavily  fined  for  entertaining  Friends,  and  every 
possible  indignity  was  thrust  upon  them. 

Sandwich  was  a  hot-bed  of  Quakerism,  and  few  of  its  in- 
habitants but  felt  the  hand  of  Endicott  in  this  eventful 
year.  Many  of  the  descendants  of  the  old  Martyrs  are 
still  living  in  this  town,  particularly  the  Wings  and  Ewers, 
whose  ancestors  were  imprisoned  for  various  causes. 

Besse  records  the  following  distraints  made  about  this 
period  from  Friends  resident  in  and  near  Sandwich,  to  sat- 
isfy the  fines  imposed: 


Robert  Harper 

£44 

0 

0 

Joseph  Allen 

5 

12 

0 

Edward  Perry 

89 

18 

0 

George  Allen 

25 

15 

0 

William  Gilford 

57 

19 

0 

William  Newland 

36 

0 

0 

Ralph  Allen,  Jun. 

18 

0 

0 

John  Jenkins 

19 

10 

0 

Henry  Howland 

1 

10 

0 

Ralph  Allen,  Sen. 

68 

0 

0 

*The  Scotts  were  of  a 

distinguished  family,  Katharine 

Scott, 

the 

\viie  of  Thomas,  was  a  descendant  of  John  Dryden,  the  poet  laureate, 
and  of  Sir  Erasmus  Dryden,  and  the  fifth  great  grandmother  of  Mrs. 
Russell  Sage,  the  distinguished  American  Philanthropist.  One  of  the 
daughters,  Mary  Scott,  married  Christopher  Holder,  the  Quaker 
pioneer  minister.  Another  daughter,  Kannah,  married  Walter  Clark, 
the  famous  Quaker  governor  of  Rhode  Island  and  minister. 


404      THE  FIRST  SOCIETY  IN  AMERICA 


Thomas  Greenfield 

4 

0 

0 

Richard  Kirby 

57 

12 

0 

William  Allen 

86 

17 

0 

Thomas  Ewer 

25 

8 

0 

Daniel  Wing 

12 

0 

0 

Peter  Gaunt 

43 

14 

6 

Michael  Turner 

13 

10 

0 

John  Newland 

2 

6 

0 

Matthew  Allen 

48 

16 

0 

£660     7  6" 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS. 

In  addition  to  the  Declaration  of  Faith  given  in  the  prev- 
ious chapter,  a  paper  was  prepared  by  the  Friends,  probably- 
written  by  Christopher  Holder,  who  was  a  highly  educated 
man  of  known  literary  tastes,  bearing  upon  the  "Persecut- 
ing Spirit  Exhibited  in  New  England  with  warning  to 
those  who  are  indulging  therein."  This  document  appears 
to  have  aroused  Endicott  to  a  "fury."  Summoning  the 
Friends  when  the  paper  was  found  to  have  been  circulated, 
he  demanded  whether  they  acknowledged  it,  and  upon  re- 
ceiving their  affirmation,  burst  into  a  tirade  of  invective, 
telling  them  "that  they  deserved  to  be  hanged  for  writing 
it,"  and,  says  Bowden,  "if  he  had  possessed  the  power  to  ex- 
ecute his  desires,  the  gibbet  on  Boston  Common  would,  in  all 
probability,  soon  have  terminated  the  labors  of  these  good 
men." 

Endicott  and  Bellingham,  his  deputy,  now  determined  to 
rid  the  colony  of  the  Quakers  at  any  cost,  and  began  a  series 
of  cruelties  and  tortures  that  savored  of  the  Inquisition. 
An  order  was  issued  that  "all  Quakers  in  jail  shall  be  severely 
whipped  twice  a  week,"  the  punishment  to  begin  with 
fifteen  lashes  and  to  increase  the  number  by  three  at  every 
successive  application  of  the  degrading  sentence.  Christo- 
pher Holder  received  thirty  lashes  at  first ;  thence  for  seven 
weeks  they  received  this  sentence,  the  punishment  being  as 
follows:  First  week  (original  punishment),  thirty  lashes; 
third  week,  thirty-three  lashes;  fourth  week,  thirty-nine 


4o6       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


lashes;  fifth  week,  forty-five  lashes,  sixth  week,  fifty-one 
lashes;  seventh  week,  fifty-seven  lashes;  eighth  week,  sixty- 
three  lashes;  ninth  week,  sixty-nine  lashes,  or,  in  the  course 
of  seven  weeks,  omitting  the  two  during  which  they  were  not 
whipped.  Holder  received  three  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
lashes  with  the  triple-knotted  cord.  Copeland  received  the 
same,  and,  in  all  probability,  Doudney,  though  the  records 
do  not  mention  it ;  yet  nowhere  is  it  shown  that  these  min- 
isters uttered  a  word  of  complaint  at  their  sufferings. 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  Endicott's  crusade  against 
the  Quakers.  He  now  issued  what  is  known  as  tht'' tongue- 
boring''  law^  in  which  it  was  stated  that  for  a  third  offense, 
the  crime  consisting  of  entering  the  city  of  Boston  or  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  the  Quaker  should  have  his  or  her 
tongue  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron.  The  following  is  a 
copy  of  the  document  which  I  take  from  the  Colonial 
Records,  which  was  passed  in  August,  1657,  and  issued  by 
Secretary  Rawson,  October  14th: 

"As  an  addition  to  the  late  order,  in  reference  to  the  com- 
ing, or  bringing  in  any  of  the  cursed  sect  of  the  Quakers  into 
this  jurisdiction.  It  is  ordered,  that  whosoever  shall  from 
henceforth  bring,  or  cause  to  be  brought,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly any  known  Quaker  or  Quakers,  or  other  blasphemous 
heretics  into  this  jurisdiction,  every  such  person  shall  forfeit 
the  sum  of  £100  to  the  country,  and  shall,  by  warrant  from 
any  magistrate,  be  committed  to  prison,  there  to  remain,  un- 
til the  penalty  be  fully  satisfied  and  paid ;  and  if  any  person 
or  persons  within  this  jurisdiction,  shall  henceforth  enter- 
tain or  conceal  any  Quaker  or  Quakers,  or  other  blasphemous 
heretics  (knowing  them  to  be  so)  every  such  person  shall 
forfeit  to  the  country  forty  shillings  for  every  hour's  con- 


REPREi^EXTATIVE  FRIEXDS 
Elizabeth  Comstock.  Caroline  Talbot 
Charles  F.  Coffin  (Li/nn.).  Avis  Keen  (Lynn.) 


JOES  CHASE  GOVE 
Of  Lynn  and  Washington.  Lineal  Descendent  of  Edn-ard  Clove  of  Hampton 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  407 


cealment  and  entertainment  of  any  Quaker  or  Quakers,  &c., 
and  shall  be  committed  to  prison  till  the  forfeitures  be  fully 
satisfied  and  paid:  And  it  is  further  ordered,  that  if  any 
Quaker  or  Quakers  shall  presume  (after  they  have  once  suf- 
fered what  the  law  requireth)  to  come  into  this  jurisdiction 
every  such  male  Quaker  shall,  for  the  first  offense,  have  one 
of  his  ears  cut  off,  and  be  kept  at  work  in  the  house  of  cor- 
rection, till  he  can  be  sent  away  at  his  own  charge;  and  for 
the  second  offence,  shall  have  his  other  ear  cut  off,  and  be 
kept  at  the  house  of  correction  as  aforesaid.  And  every 
woman  Quaker  that  hath  suffered  the  law  here,  that  shall 
presume  to  come  into  this  jurisdiction  shall  be  severely  whip- 
ped, and  kept  at  the  house  of  correction  at  work,  till  she  be 
sent  away  at  her  own  charge ;  and  also  for  her  coming  again, 
shall  be  used  as  aforesaid.  And  for  every  Quaker,  he  or 
she,  that  shall  a  third  time  offend,  they  shall  have  their 
tongues  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron,  and  kept  at  the  house 
of  correction  close  to  work  till  they  be  sent  away  at  their 
own  charge.  And  it  is  further  ordered.  That  all  and  every 
Quaker,  arising  from  amongst  ourselves,  shall  be  dealt  with 
and  suffer  like  punishment,  as  the  law  provides  against  for- 
eign Quakers. 

"Edward  Rawson,  Secretary. 
"Boston,  14th  day  of  October,  1657." 

The  repeated  whippings  to  which  Christopher  Holder  and 
John  Copeland  were  subjected  in  the  jail,  the  barbarous 
sentence  being  carried  out  twice  a  week,  as  described,  did  not 
fail  to  arouse  sentiments  of  horror  and  repugnance  among 
the  more  intelligent  of  the  Puritans,  and  a  reaction  set  in. 
The  murmurings  grew  so  loud  and  deep  that,  after  subject- 
ing the  Quakers  to  nine  weeks  of  torture,  Endicott  was 


4o8       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


alarmed  and  ordered  their  release.  On  the  24th  of  Sep- 
tember they  were  discharged  and  taken  before  the  governor 
for  final  sentence.  The  tongue-boring  law  was  read  to  them 
and  they  were  duly  banished  from  the  colony. 

While  Holder  and  Copeland  were  undergoing  the  weekly 
beatings,  the  jail  had  received  several  accessions.  Previous 
to  the  scene  at  the  First  Church,  where  Christopher  Holder 
was  attacked  and  rescued  by  Samuel  Shattuck,  he  had  been, 
as  we  have  seen,  hospitably  entertained  by  Lawrence  and 
Cassandra  Southwick,  people  of  repute  in  the  town,  de- 
scribed by  Bishop  as  "an  aged  and  grave  couple."  When 
this  was  discovered,  they  were  arrested  and  thrown  into  jail 
with  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland,  where  Rich- 
ard Doudney  soon  joined  them,  and  later  Mary  Clark,  who 
had  come  from  London  to  protest  against  the  outrages  per- 
petrated against  the  Quakers.  The  friendship  of  the  South- 
wick family  for  Holder  caused  them  to  fall  under  the  ban 
of  Governor  Endicott,  and  they  were  ultimately  driven  out 
of  the  colony.  Lawrence  Southwick  was  released,  but  upon 
Cassandra,  when  searched  in  the  jail,  was  found  the  Declar- 
ation of  Faith  by  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland, 
and  their  later  warning.  For  the  crime  of  possessing  these 
papers,  this  infirm  woman  was  detained  in  prison  seven 
weeks  and,  according  to  Gough,  both  she  and  her  husband 
were  whipped,  while,  according  to  Sewell,  they  were  de- 
prived of  their  property.  Mary  Clark  was  given  twenty 
stripes  with  three  cords  upon  her  naked  back.  Sewell  adds : 
"The  cords  of  these  whips  were  commonly  as  thick  as  a 
man's  little  finger,  having  some  knots  at  the  end,  and  the 
stick  was  sometimes  so  long  that  the  hangman  made  use  of 
both  his  hands  to  strike  the  harder." 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  409 


Governor  Endicott  even  vented  his  rage  upon  the  children 
of  the  entertainers  of  Christopher  Holder  as  well.  They 
were  evidently  watched,  it  being  suspected  that  the  family 
had  joined  the  Friends,  which  was  undoubtedly  true,  and 
the  first  time  that  Daniel  and  Provided,  the  son  and  daugh- 
ter of  Lawrence  and  Cassandra  Southwick,  remained  away 
from  church,  they  were  arrested  and  fined  £10  each  for  non- 
attendance.  This  they  would  not  pay,  whereupon  Endicott, 
determined  not  only  to  rid  the  colony  of  Christopher  Holder, 
but  of  any  who  had  befriended  him,  ordered  the  brother  and 
sister  to  be  sold  as  slaves.  The  general  court  of  Boston  is- 
sued the  following  order  in  May,  1659,  and  it  may  be  seen 
on  the  colonial  records,  bearing  the  name  of  Edward 
Rawson : 

"Whereas,  Daniel  Southwick  and  Provided  Southwick, 
son  and  daughter  of  Lawrence  Southwick,  absenting  them- 
selves from  the  public  ordinances,  having  been  fined  by  the 
courts  of  Salem  and  Ipswich,  pretending  they  have  no 
estates,  and  resolving  not  to  work :  The  court,  upon  perusal 
of  a  law  which  was  made  upon  account  of  debts,  in  answer 
to  what  should  be  done  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  fines,  re- 
solves. That  the  treasurers  of  the  several  counties,  are  and 
shall  be  fully  empowered  to  sell  the  said  persons  to  any  of 
the  English  nation  at  Virginia  or  Barbadoes,  to  answer  the 
said  fines." 

The  attempt  was  made  to  carry  out  this  sentence,  but,  to 
the  honor  of  the  Puritans,  no  one  could  be  found  in  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  who  would  be  a  party  to  Endicott's 
malice,  nor  could  a  ship  captain  be  discovered  in  any  port 
who  would  on  any  terms  carry  the  English  free  man  and 
woman  to  slavery.    This  remarkable  incident  is  introduced 


410       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


because  it  was  a  direct  result  of  the  friendship  of  Christo- 
pher Holder,  which  Endicott  made  a  blight  upon  all  who 
were  the  recipients,  and  because,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
a  descendant  of  Cassandra  Southwick  married  a  descendant 
of  Christopher  Holder — William  Penn  Holder,  late  of  Lan- 
caster, Massachusetts,  a  brother  of  Frank  T.  Holder,  of 
Pasadena,  California.  The  poem,  "Cassandra  Southwick," 
by  Whittier,  is  a  familiar  one,  a  part  of  which  is  here  given : 

Then  to  the  stout  sea  captains  the  sheriff, 
turning,  said — 

"Which  of  ye,  worthy  seamen,  will  take 
this  Quaker  maid? 

In  the  isle  of  fair  Barbadoes,  or  on  Vir- 
ginia's shore. 

You  may  hold  her  at  a  higher  price  than 
Indian  girl  or  Moor." 

Grim  and  silent  stood  the  captains;  and 

when  again  he  cried, 
"Speak  out  my  worthy  seamen!" — no 

voice,  no  sign  replied; 
But  I  felt  a  hard  hand  press  my  own, 

and  kind  word  met  my  ear, — 
"God  bless  thee  and  preserve  thee,  my 

gentle  girl  and  dear!" 

A  weight  seemed  lifted  from  my  heart, — 

a  pitying  friend  was  nigh, 
I  felt  it  in  his  hard,  rough  hand,  and  saw 

it  in  his  eye ; 
And  when  again  the  sheriff  spoke,  that 

voice,  so  kind  to  me, 
Growled  back  its  stormy  answer  like  the 

roaring  of  the  sea, — 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  411 


"Pile  my  ship  with  bars  of  silver, — pack 

with  coins  of  Spanish  gold, 
From  keel-piece  up  to  deck-plank,  the 

roomage  of  her  hold, 
By  the  living  God  who  made  me  I — I 

would  sooner  in  your  bay 
Sink  ship  and  crew  and  cargo,  than  bear 

this  child  away  I"  * 

Provided  Southwick  was  released  and  sent  home ;  Holder, 
John  Copeland,  Richard  Doudney  and  Mary  Clark,  ban- 
ished. Christopher  Holder,  banished,  took  passage  for 
England,  and  from  there  sailed  to  the  West  India  Islands, 
traveling  extensively.  But  his  heart  was  in  the  work  in  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  where  the  martyrdom  of  Friends 
was  still  going  on.  In  1658  George  Fox  received  a  letter 
from  him,  dated  Barbados,  stating  that  he  had  sailed  from 
that  port  in  February  for  Rhode  Island,  via  Bermuda.  To 
return  now  meant  not  only  the  scourge,  but  worse — the  loss 
of  an  ear,  the  brand,  or  a  hot  iron  thrust  through  the  tongue ; 
yet  Holder  determined  to  again  force  his  way  into  the  Puri- 
tan stronghold.  In  the  meantime,  his  former  companion, 
John  Copeland  had  also  decided  to  return,  and,  with 
William  Brend,  entered  the  colony  of  Plymouth.  Here 
they  found  friends  at  court  in  the  persons  of  Magistrates 
James  Cudworth  and  Timothy  Hatherly,  of  Scituate,  who 
not  only  refused  to  prosecute  them,  but  allowed  them  to 
hold  meetings  at  their  house,  and  on  their  departure  gave 
them  the  following  pass : 

"These  are,  therefore,  to  any  that  may  interrupt  these  two 


*Whittier  made  the  mistake  of  using  the  mother's  name  of  Cas- 
sandra instead  of  the  daughter's,  "Provided." 


412       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


men  in  their  passage,  that  ye  let  them  pass  quietly  on  their 
way,  they  offering  no  wrong  to  any. 

"Timothy  Hatherly." 

Despite  this  the  Friends  were  arrested  in  Boston.  Brend 
was  held  and  suffered  untold  tortures,  being  beaten  so  that 
he  was  given  up  for  dead.  John  Copeland  was  released  and 
went  to  Connecticut ;  then,  learning  that  Christopher  Holder 
had  landed  in  Rhode  Island,  he  joined  him,  and  the  two 
friends  passed  eastward  to  Plymouth. 

There  were  now  fifteen  Friends  laboring  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  original  eleven  who  had  crossed  the  ocean  in  the 
"Woodhouse,"  with  Holder,  and  Mary  Dyer,  of  Rhode 
Island,  John  Rous,  William  Leddra  and  Thomas  Harris,  of 
Barbados.  This  force  and  their  converts  were  opposed  to 
all  New  England.  The  people  were  stirred  as  never  before, 
and  the  Quakers  were  constantly  entering  Boston.  As  soon 
as  one  party  was  beaten,  another  appeared,  and  the  Puritans 
wondered  that  these  men  could  submit  to  such  torture  with- 
out complaint.  On  the  15th  of  April,  1658,  Christopher 
Holder  and  John  Copeland  left  Rhode  Island,  and  on  the 
23rd  they  attended  a  meeting  of  Friends  at  Sandwich,  where 
they  were  promptly  arrested  by  the  marshal.  The  latter 
officer  had  received  strict  orders  from  Governor  Endicott  to 
enforce  the  laws,  and  to  banish  all  Quakers  without  delay; 
and  should  they  return,  the  selectmen  were  ordered  to  see 
that  they  were  whipped. 

The  ministers  were  ordered  to  leave,  but  Christopher 
Holder  replied  that  "if  they  felt  it  to  be  the  will  of  their 
divine  master,  they  would  do  so,  but  on  no  other  ground 
could  they  promise  to  leave  Sandwich."  The  marshal  then 
notified  the  selectmen  that  it  was  their  duty  to  act,  but  they 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  413 


refused,  whereupon  he  seized  the  two  Quakers  and  marched 
them  to  Barnstable — a  singular  procession,  as  many  of  the 
converts  of  Holder  and  his  friend  insisted  on  following,  that 
they  might  "cheer  their  brethren  in  bonds."  The  following 
are  the  names  of  some  of  the  original  eighteen  families  who 
became  Friends,  and  doubtless  many  of  them  followed 
Christopher  Holder  and  saw  him  scourged  at  Barnstable. 
They  were  Thomas  Ewer,  Robert  Harper,  Joseph  Allen, 
Edward  Perry,  George  Allen,  William  Gifford,  William 
Newland,  Ralph  Allen,  Jr.,  John  Jenkins,  Henry  Howland, 
Ralph  Allen,  Sr.,  Thomas  Greenfield,  Richard  Kirby, 
William  Allen,  Daniel  Wing,  Peter  Gaunt,  Michael  Turner, 
John  Newland,  Matthew  Allen,  all  of  whom,  in  1658, 
were  fined  from  ten  to  one  hundred  pounds  for  refusing  to 
take  the  oath.  Nearly  all  are  represented  in  Sandwich  or 
vicinity  to-day.  Mrs.  Ewer  is  at  the  Moses  Brown  School 
in  Providence;  a  Wing  still  lives  in  the  old  Wing  home- 
stead. The  Howlands  settled  in  New  Bedford,  and  the 
descendants  are  prominent  Friends  to-day.  The  Aliens  and 
Wings  are  distinguished  families  in  New  England:  and  so 
with  the  others,  the  descendants  in  1913  being  in  many  in- 
stances still  Friends,  worthy  descendants  of  the  early 
martyrs  and  among  the  men  and  women  who  have  made 
New  England  what  it  is. 

The  Barnstable  magistrate  was  heartily  in  accord  with 
the  marshal,  and,  after  going  through  the  form  of  an  exami- 
nation, he  undertook  the  office  of  executioner,  bound  the 
prisoners  to  a  post  in  an  outhouse,  and,  with  their  friends  as 
"ear  and  eye  witnesses  to  the  cruelty,"  administered  thirty- 
three  lashes,  cutting  their  naked  backs  until  they  ran  with 
blood.    The  day  following  the  whippings,  when  the  victims 


414       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


were  better  able  to  travel,  they  were  taken  to  Sandwich  and 
released,  traveling  to  Rhode  Island,  doubtless  to  recover 
from  their  wounds  among  staunch  friends. 

Christopher  Holder,  seriously  injured  by  his  repeated 
beatings,  found  refuge  in  the  home  of  Richard  and  Kather- 
ine  Scott,  Friends,  or  Quakers,  of  Providence,  who  tenderly 
cared  for  him  until  he  regained  his  health,  and  not  long 
after  we  learned  that  he  was  engaged  to  Mary  Scott,*  a 
daughter  of  the  family. 

It  is  difficult  for  the  reader  in  the  twentieth  century  to 

*The  Scotts  were  influential  people  in  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  were  early  converts  to  the  religious  convictions  of  Christopher 
Holder.  Bishop  says  that  Katherine  Scott  was  a  "grave,  sober, 
ancient  woman,  of  blameless  conversation  and  of  good  education  and 
circumstances,"  and  Hutchinson,  the  historian,  states  that  she  was  well 
bred,  being  a  minister's  daughter  in  England,  though  a  Quaker  by 
conviction.  Her  sister  was  the  famous  Anne  Marbury  Hutchinson, 
the  leader  of  the  Antinomians  in  Boston,  who,  with  her  brother,  John 
Wheelright,  was  banished  from  Massachuseetts  in  1637,  and  who  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  at  Hell  Gate,  N.  Y.,  in  1643.  The  husband, 
Richard  Scott,  was  a  man  of  wealth  and  influence  in  the  colonies. 
Norton  says:  "Her  husband,  Richard  Scott,  and  eight  or  nine  child- 
ren also  became  convinced  of  our  convictions."  "The  power  of  God," 
writes  John  Rous,  "took  place  in  all  their  children"  (Norton's  Ensign), 
and,  according  to  Bowden,  one  of  the  daughters  spoke  as  a  minister, 
although  but  eleven  years  of  age.  In  a  biography  of  Mary  Dyer  by 
Horatio  Rogers,  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode 
Island,  1896,  a  relative  of  Christopher  Holder  by  marriage,  is  found 
the  following  reference  to  this  family,  into  which  Christopher  Holder 
married:  "The  Scott  family  were  staunch  Quakers  and  very  friendly 
with  Mary  Dyer."  Still  another  daughter,  Hannah  Scott,  married 
Walter  Clarke,  a  young  Quaker,  and  for  a  number  of  years  governor 
of  Rhode  Island.  It  is  from  her  that  Horatio  Rogers  is  descended. 
Mrs.  Katherine  Scott's  father  was  the  Rev.  Francis  Marbury,  of 
London,  and  her  mother  was  sister  of  Sir  Erasmus  Dryden,  Bart., 
grandfather  of  the  poet.  Such  was  the  family  into  which  Christopher 
Holder  married,  and  in  which  we  now  find  him  recovering  from  his 
last  scourging  at  Barnstable. 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  415 


realize  the  zeal  which  actuated  these  Quaker  Martyrs,  which 
made  them  eager  and  willing  to  face  death,  branding  and 
nameless  tortures,  in  emulation  of  Him  who  died  upon  the 
cross  to  save  sinners.  It  was  this  sentiment  which  supported 
them.  If  Christ  gave  His  life  to  save  the  world,  how 
then  could  his  followers  refuse  to  sacrifice  their  lives  in  His 
cause?  Such  was  the  philosophy  of  Christopher  Holder 
and  his  friends,  who  now  carried  on  this  most  unequal  war- 
fare against  the  religious  tenets  of  the  Puritans.  Says 
Associate  Justice  Rogers,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode 
Island:  "Massachusetts  law-makers  did  not  reckon  upon  the 
existence  of  a  zeal,  a  courage,  a  heroism,  call  it  what  you 
will,  that  would  break  down  and  triumph  over  their  determ- 
ination. They  had  never  seen  a  self-sacrifice  that  conquered 
by  its  very  submissiveness,  and  overwhelmed  persecutors 
by  a  surfeit  of  victims  offering  themselves  for  sacrifice.  The 
Quakers,"  he  continues,  "were  absolutely  fearless.  They 
counted  their  lives  as  nothing  in  upholding  their  views,  and 
they  not  only  did  not  avoid  martyrdom,  but  they  studiously 
courted  it ;  and  therein  lay  their  power  and  the  secret  of  their 
final  triumph." 

News  from  Boston  was  not  wholly  reassuring.  Humph- 
rey Norton,  William  Brend,  John  Rous  and  others  were  be- 
ing brutally  beaten  and  treated  there,  and  a  new  law  had 
been  enacted  to  the  effect  that  if  Quakers  in  jail  would  not 
work,  they  were  to  be  whipped  regularly  twice  a  week,  the 
first  whipping  to  be  with  ten  strokes,  the  second  with  fifteen, 
and  every  subsequent  whipping  with  an  addition  of  three 
"until  further  orders,"  the  victims  to  which  other  than  the 
above  being  William  Leddra,  afterwards  hung  by  order  of 
Endicott,  and  Thomas  Harris.    This  brutality  so  aroused 


4i6       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


the  people  that  their  fines  were  raised  by  public  subscription, 
and  the  four  Friends  sent  to  Providence.  When  they  reached 
Rhode  Island,  Christopher  Holder  was  just  convalescent 
after  his  Barnstable  scourging,  and,  as  Boston  was  now  left 
without  any  Friends  to  carry  on  the  work,  he  decided  to  go 
there,  with  John  Copeland,  who  arrived  in  Providence  about 
this  time.  The  two  men  well  knew  what  was  before  them. 
They  might,  according  to  edict,  lose  an  ear,  be  branded,  per- 
haps whipped  to  death  after  the  manner  of  John  Brend,  but 
all  this  had  no  terrors  for  them,  and  on  the  3d  of  June, 
1658,  they  left  Providence,  soon  reaching  Dedham.  Before 
they  had  an  opportunity  to  preach,  the  emissaries  of  Endi- 
cott  heard  of  their  presence,  arrested  them  and  sent  them  to 
Boston,  where  they  were  at  once  carried  to  the  House  of 
Governor  Endicott,  who  flew  into  a  violent  rage  upon  seeing 
and  recognizing  them  as  the  ministers  who  had  repeatedly 
defied  him.  "You  shall  have  your  ears  cut  off,"  he  shouted. 
"That  men  who  had  been  imprisoned,"  says  Bowden,  "and 
whipped  and  banished  for  their  religious  opinions,  should 
still  persist  in  the  advocacy  of  them,  with  the  certainty  of  in- 
curring increased  severities,  was  what  the  darkened  mind  of 
Endicott  could  not  comprehend."  The  scene  must  have 
been  a  striking  one.  The  manacled  Quakers  standing  by  the 
officers,  cool,  perfectly  at  their  ease,  regardless  of  abuse,  ac- 
cepting everything  as  a  part  of  their  work  without  com- 
plaint. Their  very  equipoise  was  maddening  to  the  narrow- 
minded  man  v/ho  was  their  superior  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
their  inferior  in  intelligence  or  breeding.  He  vainly  en- 
deavored to  extort  from  them  some  remark  which  might  be 
used  against  them.  "What!  You  remain  in  the  same 
opinion  you  were  before?"  he  cried,  wondering,  despite 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  417 


his  rage,  v/hat  manner  of  men  these  were.  "We  remain  in 
the  fear  of  the  Lord,"  responded  Holder.  "Why  do  you 
return"?"  then  asked  Governor  Endicott;  "you  know  the 
law."  "The  Lord  God  hath  commanded  us,  and  we  could 
not  but  come,"  replied  Christopher  Holder.  "The  Lord 
command  you  to  come*?"  exclaimed  the  governor;  "it  was 
Satan;"  and,  turning  to  Rawson,  his  secretary,  he  directed 
that  the  following  order  should  be  made  out,  here  copied 
from  Besse: 

"To  the  Keeper  of  the  House  of  Correction: 
"You  are  by  virtue  hereof,  required  to  take  into  your 
custody  the  bodies  of  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Cope- 
land,  and  them  safely  to  keep  close  to  work,  with  prisoners' 
diet  only,  till  their  ears  be  cut  off;  and  not  suffer  them  to 
converse  with  any,  while  they  are  in  your  custody. 

"Edward  Rawson,  Secretary." 

The  ministers  were  thrust  into  a  noisome  jail,  and  for 
three  days  the  jailer  starved  them  because  they  would  not 
work.  A  few  days  later  they  were  joined  by  their  friend, 
John  Rous,  who  had  been  arrested.  The  Court  of  Assist- 
ants assembled  in  Boston  the  7th  of  July,  1658,  and  the 
three  friends  were  taken,  menacled,  before  it  and  subjected 
to  a  long  and  rigorous  questioning  as  to  why  they  had  re- 
turned. They  were  then  remanded,  and  again  taken  before 
the  court  to  receive  sentence,  which  was  that  each  should 
have  the  right  ear  cut  off,  a  degrading  punishment,  originally 
devised  by  the  Star  Chamber,  in  England,  which,  in  1634, 
ordered  that  William  Prynne,  Henry  Burton  and  Dr.  Bost- 
wick  should  have  their  ears  cut  off  at  a  scaffold  in  Palace 
Yard,  Westminster,  an  order  which  was  carried  out  against 
27 


41 8       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


these  Puritans,  who  now  applied  the  same  treatment  to  the 
Quakers. 

The  sentence  created  intense  excitement  in  Boston. 
Many  began  to  feel  that  the  charges  against  the  Quakers 
were  unjust  and  without  reason,  also  many  converts  had 
been  made,  both  factions  forming  the  nucleus  of  an  anti- 
Puritan  party.  As  the  news  was  spread  broadcast  and  reached 
Rhode  Island,  Friends  at  once  started  for  Boston  to  protest 
against  the  injustice  and  to  give  the  victims  their  moral  sup- 
port. Among  them  were  Cassandra  and  Lawrence  South- 
wick,  Samuel  Shattuck,  who  had  entertained  Christopher 
Holder,  William  Newland  and  others  of  Sandwich. 
Among  the  women  who  went  to  Boston  was  Katherine  Scott, 
of  Providence,  who  had  so  recently  entertained  Christopher 
Holder.  She  created  much  excitement  by  her  bold  ad- 
vocacy of  the  prisoners,  her  influence  and  position  in  the 
colony  of  Rhode  Island  being  well  known.  She  went  be- 
fore Endicott  and  remonstrated  with  him  on  "this  barbarous 
act-,"  and  was  detained  as  a  prisoner  for  her  temerity  and 
subjected  to  a  rigorous  examination,  during  which  she  was 
told  that  "they  were  likely  to  have  a  law  to  hang  her  if  she 
came  there  again."  To  which  she  replied,  "If  God  calls  us, 
woe  be  to  us  if  we  come  not,  and  I  question  not  but  He 
whom  we  love,  will  make  us  not  count  our  lives  dear  unto 
ourselves  for  the  sake  of  His  name."  To  which  Endicott 
replied,  "And  we  shall  be  as  ready  to  take  away  your  lives, 
as  ye  shall  be  to  lay  them  down."  She  was  released,  with  a 
warning.  In  the  meantime,  Christopher  Holder  announced 
to  the  court  that  he  wished  to  appeal  to  Oliver  Cromwell 
against  its  decision,  to  which  reply  was  made  that  if  they 
opened  their  mouths  again  the  gag  would  be  applied. 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  419 


On  the  17  th  of  July  the  sentence  was  to  be  carried  out, 
and,  hearing  it  was  to  be  enforced  privately  by  their  execu- 
tioner in  the  jail,  Katherine  Scott  made  another  protest, 
saying  that  "It  was  evident  they  were  going  to  act  the  works 
of  darkness  or  else  they  would  have  brought  them  forth 
publicly  and  have  declared  their  offense  that  others  may 
hear  and  fear,"  The  truth  was  that  so  hostile  had  the  pub- 
lic become  at  these  exhibitions  that  Endicott  feared  to  risk 
a  public  execution;  hence  it  was  carried  out  in  private.  But 
Katherine  Scott  had  protested  too  much.  She  was  arrested 
for  this  last  offense,  committed  to  prison,  and  given  ten 
stripes  with  the  knotted  cord  at  the  hands  of  the  executioner 
— an  act  which  aroused  the  greatest  indignation  in  the  col- 
ony of  Rhode  Island.  On  the  17th  of  July,  Christopher 
Holder,  John  Rous  and  John  Copeland  had  their  right  ears 
cut  off  by  the  hangman,  and,  as  they  stood,  bleeding,  the 
latter  asked  if  they  repented  and  how  they  liked  it.  Their 
reply  was,  "In  the  strength  of  God  we  suffered  joyfully, 
having  freely  given  up  not  only  one  member,  but  all,  if  the 
Lord  so  required,  for  the  sealing  of  our  testimony  which  the 
Lord  hath  given  us."  Sewell  gives  the  following  account  of 
the  incident : 

"To  the  marshal-general,  or  to  his  deputy:  You  are  to 
take  with  you  the  executioner,  and  repair  to  the  house  of  cor- 
rection, and  there  see  him  cut  off  the  right  ears  of  John 
Copeland,  Christopher  Holder,  and  John  Rous,  Quakers ;  in 
execution  of  the  sentence  of  the  court  of  assistants,  for  the 
breach  of  the  law,  entitled  Quakers. 

"  'Edward  Rawson,  Secretary.' 

"Then  the  prisoners  were  brought  into  another  room, 
where  John  Rous  said  to  the  marshal,  'We  have  appealed  to 


420       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


the  chief  magistrate  of  England.'  To  which  he  answered  he 
had  nothing  to  do  with  that.  Holder  said,  'Such  execution 
as  this  should  be  done  publicly,  and  not  in  private,  for  this 
was  contrary  to  the  law  of  England.'  But  Captain  Oliver 
said,  'We  do  it  in  private  to  keep  you  from  tattling.'  Then 
the  executioner  took  Holder,  and  when  he  had  turned  aside 
his  hair,  and  was  going  to  cut  off  his  ear,  the  marshal  turned 
his  back  on  him,  which  made  Rous  say,  'Turn  about  and 
see  it ;  for  so  was  his  order.'  The  marshal  then,  though  filled 
with  fear,  turned  and  said,  'Yes,  yes,  let  us  look  on  it.' 
Rous,  who  was  more  undaunted  than  his  persecutor,  suffered 
the  like,  as  well  as  the  third,  and  they  said,  'Those  that  do 
it  ignorantly,  we  desire  from  our  hearts  the  Lord  to  forgive 
them ;  but  for  them  that  do  it  maliciously,  let  our  blood  be 
upon  their  heads ;  and  such  shall  know,  in  the  day  of  account, 
that  every  drop  of  our  blood  shall  be  as  heavy  upon  them  as 
a  millstone.'  Afterwards  these  persons  were  whipped 
again ;  but,  this  practice  becoming  so  common  in  New  Eng- 
land as  if  it  was  but  play,  I  will  not  detain  my  reader 
with  it." 

The  mutilated  ministers,  showing  no  evidence  of  fear,  or 
that  they  purposed  to  change  their  methods,  were  detained 
in  jail,  and,  according  to  the  law,  beaten  twice  a  week, 
finally,  after  nine  weeks  of  this  punishment,  being  released. 

Rev.  John  Norton  (who,  according  to  Oldmixon,  in  his 
"British  Empire  in  America,"  was  at  the  head  of  all  Quaker 
suffering  in  America),  a  Puritan  pastor  of  the  First  Church, 
who  had  been  the  bitterest  enemy  of  the  Quakers,  foreseeing 
that  they  would  return  again,  induced  the  magistrates  to 
pass  a  still  more  stringent  law;  ear-cutting,  boring  the 
tongue,  branding  the  hand  with  H  (Heretic),  the  pillory 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  421 


and  stocks,  the  whipping  post  and  banishment,  were  all  too 
simple  for  this  reverend  spirit.  The  Rev.  John  Wilson, 
another  pastor  of  the  Boston  First  Church,  cried :  "1  would 
carr}^  fire  in  my  one  hand  and  fagots  in  the  other,  to  burn  all 
the  Quakers  in  the  world.  Hang  them  I"  he  cried,  "or  else" 
— drawing  his  finger  across  his  throat  in  a  suggestive  man- 
ner. Such  was  the  strenuous  life  in  Boston  in  1658.  As 
a  result  of  the  demands  of  these  clergymen  of  the  town,  the 
following  act  was  passed  a  few  weeks  after  Christopher 
Holder  was  released,  or  on  the  20th  of  October,  being  evi- 
dently designed  to  end  the  career  of  this  ecclesiastical  knight 
should  he  ever  return  to  the  colony  of  Massachusetts.  The 
act,  which  is  a  long  one,  ends  as  follows :  'They  shall  be 
sentenced  to  banishment  upon  pain  of  death;  and  any  one 
magistrate  upon  informxation  given  him  of  any  such  person, 
shall  cause  him  to  be  apprehended,  and  shall  commit  any 
such  person  to  prison,  according  to  his  discretion,  until  he 
come  to  trial,  as  aforesaid." 

'"Here,"  says  Sewell,  the  historian,  "ends  this  sanguinary' 
act,  being  more  like  to  the  decrees  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
than  to  the  laws  of  a  reformed  Christian  magistracy,  consist- 
ing of  such,  who,  to  shun  persecution  themselves,  (which  was 
•but  a  small  fine  for  not  frequenting  public  worship),  had 
left  Old  England." 

The  reader  who  has  followed  the  steps  of  this  martyr 
of  the  Friends  will  not  believe  that  Christopher  Holder 
would  obey  the  mandates,  often  broken,  of  banishment,  or 
be  intimidated  by  the  brutal  act  passed  with  so  much  diffi- 
culty. When  liberated  from  jail,  his  health  being  impair- 
ed, he  went  south,  where  he  joined  William  Robinson,  de- 
scribed as  his  loving  friend,  and,  together  with  Robert 


422       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


Hodgson,  they  carried  on  their  gospel  labors  in  Virginia  and 
Maryland  until  early  in  1659,  when  they  returned  to  Rhode 
Island.  It  appears  from  a  letter  written  by  Peter  Pearson 
in  Plymouth  Prison,  that  all  the  Friends  met  in  Rhode  Is- 
land, April  9,  1659,  to  arrange  for  future  work. 

Previous  to  going  Christopher  Holder  issued  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  the  magistrates  and  others  in  Boston,  a  fac- 
simile of  which  and  of  the  exact  size,  showing  his  hand  writ- 
ing and  autograph,  is  seen  on  the  following  page.  This  let- 
ter was  found  in  New  England  by  Mr.  Wing,  Curator  of  the 
Dartmouth  Museum  and  a  distinguished  authority  on  Qua- 
ker history.  Mr.  Wing  is  a  descendant  of  Christopher 
Holder  on  the  Slocum  side,  his  grandfather  being  Holder 
Howland. 

The  journey  was  soon  begun,  and,  at  her  earnest  solicita- 
tion, Christopher  Holder  allowed  Patience  Scott,  who  was 
later  to  become  his  sister-in-law,  to  accompany  them.  She 
was  but  eleven  years  of  age,  yet  had  developed  a  remarkable 
talent  for  speaking,  and  seemed  possessed  of  wisdom  far  be- 
yond her  age.  Her  appearance  in  Boston,  and  her  subse- 
quent experiences,  created  a  profound  sensation. 

The  three  men  knew  that  there  could  be  but  one  result  of 
their  journey.  They  had  all  been  banished  under  pain  of 
death,  yet  faced  it  without  regret.  That  they  succeeded  in 
avoiding  arrest  for  some  weeks  is  evident,  as,  in  a  letter  to 
friends  in  England,  William  Robinson  mentions  having  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Christopher  Holder  in  May,  1659,  in 
which  he  says,  "Was  in  service  at  Salem  last  week,  and  hath 
had  fine  service  among  Friends  in  these  parts." 

Their  time  of  freedom  was  short.  Marmaduke  Stephen- 
son and  William  Robinson  were  arrested;  then  Patience 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  423 


Scott  was  jailed  for  protesting  against  their  sentence,  and 
last,  Christopher  Holder  was  apprehended  in  the  streets  of 
Boston  and  thrown  into  jail.  As  a  result,  the  courts,  fear- 
ing public  opinion,  sentenced  them  again,  with  the  exception 
of  Patience  Scott,  to  banishment,  under  pain  of  death,  giv- 
ing them  the  customary  beating  and  a  few  days  in  which  to 
leave.  But,  to  the  consternation  of  Endicott  and  Norton, 
the  Friends  paid  no  attention  to  the  warning.  William 
Robinson  and  Marmaduke  Stephenson  held  many  meetings 
in  and  about  Salem  and  Lynn,  in  the  fields  and  by-ways, 
while  Christopher  Holder  traveled  in  the  north  of  Massa- 
chusetts, then  returning  to  Boston,  where  he  was  arrested 
and  thrown  into  jail  in  August,  1659.  The  magistrates 
were  amazed  at  this  utter  disregard  of  the  death  penalty, 
and,  urged  by  the  Rev.  Norton,  wholesale  arrests  were  made 
and  preparations  for  the  execution  of  some  of  the  Quakers 
begun.  Numbers  of  Friends  now  came  to  Boston  to  see 
Christopher  Holder,  among  them  Hope  Clifton,  of  a  well- 
known  Rhode  Island  family,  who  later  became  his  second 
wife.  With  her  came  Mary  Dyer  and  Mary  Scott.  Bow- 
den  says:  "Mary  Dyer,  under  a  feeling  of  religious  con- 
straint, returned  to  Boston,  accompanied  by  Hope  Clifton, 
a  Friend,  of  Rhode  Island.  They  entered  the  city  the  8th 
of  the  eighth  month;  on  the  following  morning  they  pro- 
ceeded to  the  gaol  to  visit  Christopher  Holder,  and  were 
recognized  and  arrested." 

In  rapid  succession  friends  of  Christopher  Holder  were 
thrown  into  jail — Robert  Harper,  Daniel  and  Provided 
Southwick,  Nicholas  Upsal.  A  few  days  later  Robinson 
and  Stephenson  came  from  Salem,  heading  a  remarkable 
procession  of  Friends,  who  accompanied  them  to  witness 


424       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


their  execution.  They  were  Daniel  Gould,  Hannah  Phelps, 
William  King,  Mary  Trask,  Margaret  Smith  and  Alice 
Cowland.  'The  latter,"  says  Bishop,  "brought  linen  to 
wrap  the  dead  bodies  of  those  who  were  to  suffer."  All 
these  persons  were  met  by  the  constables,  the  two  ministers 
being  loaded  with  chains.  There  were  now  seventeen  per- 
sons in  jail,  and  Bancroft  says,  "The  Quakers  swarmed  w^hen 
they  were  feared." 

For  some  reason,  in  all  probability  the  fact  that  his  fam- 
ily or  connections  in  England  were  of  paramount  influence 
with  the  reigning  powers.  Governor  Endicott  found  it  con- 
venient to  omit  sentencing  Christopher  Holder  to  death, 
though  he  had  once,  if  not  twice,  been  banished  under  pain 
of  death,  and  had  been  the  recipient  of  the  maximum 
amount  of  malignity  in  the  form  of  every  possible  indignity 
and  torture ;  but  Stephenson,  Robinson  and  Mary  Dyer  were 
sentenced  to  death  and  later  executed.  The  other  Friends 
with  Christopher  Holder  were  kept  in  jail  two  months,  and 
then  taken  before  the  court  for  examination.  Their  sen- 
tence was,  the  men  fifteen  stripes  each;  the  older  women  ten 
stripes  each,  for  which  they  were  stripped  in  the  public 
streets  and  beaten  before  the  mob.  Alice  Cowland,  Hannah 
Phelps,  Hope  Clifton  and  Mary  Scott  were  delivered  over 
to  Governor  Endicott  for  admonition,  while  Christopher 
Holder  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  governor,  as  suggested 
above,  was  for  the  third  time  banished  on  pain  of  death. 
An  order  of  the  court  was  issued  to  this  effect,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  copy  taken  from  the  Colonial  Records, 
October  18,  1659: 

"Whereas,  Christopher  Holder,  a  Quaker,  hath  suffered 
what  the  law  formerly  appointed,  after  being  sent  to  Eng- 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  425 


land  without  punishment,  presumptuously  coming  into  this 
jurisdiction  without  leave  first  obtained,  the  Court  judgeth 
it  meete  to  sentence  him  to  banishment  on  pain  of  death ;  in 
case  he  be  found  within  this  jurisdiction  three  days  after  the 
next  ship  now  bound  from  hence  to  England  be  departed 
from  this  harbor,  with  the  keeper  at  his  own  charge,  he  shall 
have  liberty  one  day  in  a  week  to  go  about  his  business,  and 
in  case  he  shall  choose  to  go  out  of  this  jurisdiction  sooner 
on  the  penalty  aforesaid,  he  shall  by  order  from  the  Gover- 
nor or  Deputy  Governor  be  discharged  the  prison,  so  as  he 
stay  not  above  three  days  after  his  discharge  from  the 
prison  in  this  jurisdiction." 

Christopher  Holder  now  sailed  for  England  where,  with 
Samuel  Shattuck,  George  Fox  and  other  Friends,  he  held 
many  meetings;  and  when  Charles  the  Second  succeeded  to 
the  throne,  he  at  once  acted  on  the  appeals  of  the  Quakers, 
and  released  a  small  army  of  them  from  English  jails,  and 
promised  the  American  martyrs  that  they  should  be  pro- 
tected. 

WTien  the  news  of  the  downfall  of  the  Puritan  party  and 
the  restoration  reached  America,  Endicott  and  his  friends 
became  alarmed  and  realized  that  they  must  justify  the 
murders  of  Robinson,  Stephenson  and  Dyer  and  the  mal- 
treatment of  Holder  and  his  banishment  on  pain  of  death. 
They  accordingly  got  up  a  petition  in  which  the  Friends 
were  denoimced  in  the  most  remarkable  terms,  evidence,  if 
no  other  existed,  of  their  malice,  and  the  fear  and  injustice 
which  filled  the  hearts  of  Endicott,  Wilson,  Rawson,  Norton 
and  Bellingham  at  this  time.  This  tissue  of  lies  was  taken 
to  England  by  agents  of  Endicott,  but  Christopher  Holder, 
Samuel  Shattuck  and  John  Cope  land  were  in  London,  and 


426       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


their  friend,  Edward  Burrough,  provided  by  them  with  the 
facts,  made  the  king  his  well-known  address : 

"Oh  King,  this  my  occasion  to  present  thee  with  these 
considerations  is  very  urgent,  and  of  great  necessity,  even  in 
the  behalf  of  innocent  blood,  because  of  a  paper  presented  to 
thee,  called  The  humble  petition  and  address  of  the  General 
Court  at  Boston,  in  New  England;'  in  which  are  con- 
tained divers  calumnies,  unjust  reproaches,  palpable  un- 
truths, and  malicious  slanders  against  an  innocent  people. 
It  is  hard  to  relate  the  cruelties  that  have  been  committed 
against  this  people  by  these  petitioners:  they  have  spoiled 
their  goods,  imprisoned  many  of  their  persons,  whipped 
them,  cut  off  their  ears,  burned  them,  yea,  banished  and 
murdered  them:  and  all  I  aver  and  affirm  before  thee,  O 
King,  wholly  unjustly  and  unrighteously,  and  without  the 
breach  of  any  just  law  of  God  or  man;  but  for  and  because 
of  difference  in  judgment  and  practice  concerning  spiritual 
things." 

"After  refuting  the  charges  of  blasphemy,  &c.,'''  says 
Bowden,  "Edward  Burrough  refers  to  another,  in  which  they 
are  represented  as  persons  of  'impetuous  and  desperate 
turbulency  to  the  State,  civil  and  ecclesiastical.'  "Let  it  be 
considered,"  says  Burrough,  "what  their  dangerous  and 
desperate  turbulency  was  to  State,  civil  and  ecclesiastical: 
Did  ever  these  poor  people,  whom  they  condemned  and  put 
to  shameful  death,  lift  up  a  hand  against  them,  or  appear  in 
any  turbulent  gesture  towards  them?  Were  they  ever 
found  with  an}"  carnal  weapon  about  them*?  or,  what  was 
their  crime,  saving  that  they  warned  sinners  to  repent,  and 
the  ungodly  to  turn  from  his  way"?  We  appeal  to  the  God 
of  heaven  on  their  behalf,  whom  they  have  martyred  for  the 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  427 


name  of  Christ,  that  they  had  no  other  offense  to  charge  up- 
on them,  saving  their  conversations,  doctrines,  and  (relig- 
ious) practices.  It  is  fully  believed  by  us,  that  these  sufferers 
did  not  go  into  New  England  in  their  own  cause,  but  in 
God's  cause,  and  in  the  movings  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  and  in 
good  conscience  towards  Him.  They  did  rather  suffer  the 
loss  of  their  own  lives  for  their  obedience  towards  God  than 
to  disobey  him  to  keep  the  commandments  of  men.  The 
blood  of  our  brethren  lieth  upon  the  heads  of  the  magis- 
trates of  New  England.  They  are  guilty  of  their  cruel 
death;  for  they  put  them  to  death,  not  for  any  evil  doing 
between  man  and  man,  but  for  their  obedience  to  God,  and 
for  good  conscience  sake  towards  him." 

Burrough  in  continuing  said:  "Again,  these  petitioners 
fawn  and  flatter  in  these  words — 'Let  not  the  king  hear  men's 
words;  your  servants  are  true  men,  fearers  of  God  and  the 
king,  and  not  given  to  change;  zealous  of  government  and 
order.  We  are  not  seditious  to  the  interest  of  Caesar,  &c. 
In  answer  to  this,  many  things  are  to  be  considered;  why 
should  the  petitioners  seem  to  exhort  the  king  not  to  hear 
men's  words'?  Shall  the  innocent  be  accused  before  him, 
and  not  heard  in  their  lawful  defense?  Must  not  the  king 
'  hear  the  accused  as  well  as  the  accusers,  and  in  as  much 
justice?  I  hope  God  hath  given  him  more  nobility  of 
understanding,  than  to  receive  or  put  in  practice  such  ad- 
monition; and  I  desire  that  it  may  be  far  from  the  king  ever 
to  condemn  any  person  or  people  upon  the  accusation  of 
others,  without  full  hearing  of  the  accused,  as  well  as  their 
enemies,  for  it  is  justice  and  equity  so  to  do,  and  thereby 
shall  his  judgment  be  the  more  just."  "Thus,"  he  concluded, 
"these  considerations  are  presented  to  the  king,  in  vindi- 


428        THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


cation  of  that  innocent  people  called  Quakers,  whom  these 
petitioners  have  accused  as  guilty  of  heinous  crimes,  that 
themselves  might  appear  innocent  of  the  cruelty,  and  in- 
justice, and  shedding  of  the  blood  of  just  men,  without 
cause.  But  let  the  king  rightly  consider  of  the  case  between 
us  and  them,  and  let  him  not  hide  his  face  from  hearing  the 
cry  of  innocent  blood.  For  a  further  testimony  of  the 
wickedness  and  enormity  of  these  petitioners,  and  to  demon- 
strate how  far  they  had  proceeded  contrary  to  the  good  laws 
and  authority  of  England,  and  contrar}^  to  their  own  patent, 
hereunto  is  annexed  and  presented  to  the  king,  a  brief  of 
their  unjust  dealings  towards  the  Quakers." 

He  did  not  stop  here;  his  eloquent  appeal  to  justice  was 
followed  by  a  complete  presentation  of  the  facts  relating  to 
the  outrages  against  Christopher  Holder,  Samuel  Shattuck 
and  others  by  George  Bishop,  of  Bristol,  who  in  1661  pro- 
duced his  book,  "New  England  Judged,"  which  was  pre- 
sented to  the  king  and  read  by  him.  The  result  was  decis- 
ive. The  king  determined  to  end  the  outrages  perpetrated 
in  the  colonies  in  the  name  of  religion,  and  responded  in  a 
paper  which  left  no  doubt  but  that  the  Quakers  were  at  last 
to  be  protected.  A  mandamus  was  addressed  to  Endicott 
ordering  that  all  Quakers  in  jail  be  released  and  sent  to  Eng- 
land. Probably  with  a  view  to  thoroughly  humiliating 
Endicott,  Burrough  asked  the  king  that  one  of  the  banished 
Friends  might  be  the  bearer  of  the  mandamus,  and  Samuel 
Shattuck,  the  intimate  friend  of  Christopher  Holder,  the 
man  who  in  the  First  Church  of  Salem,  1656,  had  prevented 
him  from  being  strangled,  and  who  had  been  banished  and 
deprived  of  his  property  for  his  staunch  friendship  for 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS  429 


Holder  and  his  loyalty  to  the  doctrine  of  Friends,  who 
desired  to  return  to  his  family,  was  appointed. 

No  more  obnoxious  selection  could  have  been  made,  and 
doubtless  the  little  coterie  of  Friends  who  now  had  the 
king's  ear  were  not  entirely  without  a  sense  of  humor.  The 
English  Friends  raised  the  money  at  once  to  hire  a  ship. 
Ralph  Goldsmith  was  appointed  master,  and  they  dispatched 
her  with  Samuel  Shattuck  and  many  Friends  as  pas- 
sengers, who  embraced  this  opportunity  to  return.  In  six 
weeks  she  entered  Boston  harbor.  The  following  day  Shat- 
tuck and  the  captain  waited  on  the  governor  at  his  house, 
and  the  former  stood  face  to  face  with  the  man  who  had  in- 
sulted and  banished  him,  now  a  king's  messenger. 

This  incident  is  one  of  the  most  dramatic  occurrences  in 
all  the  story  of  New  England  Quakers.  The  man  who  had 
rescued  Christopher  Holder  from  the  outrageous  attack  in 
First  Church,  who  had  been  banished,  and,  to  all  intents, 
made  an  outlaw,  had  returned  as  the  King's  Messenger. 
When  the  Quaker  entered  Endicott's  home  he  did  not  re- 
move his  hat.  Sir  John,  in  a  fury,  ordered  it  be  taken  from 
him,  and  a  servant  jerked  it  off  and  flung  it  upon  the  floor 
,  in  derision.  There  must  have  been  a  lurking  laugh  on  the 
Quaker's  face  when  he  remarked,  "Is  this  the  way  the  Mes- 
senger of  His  Majesty  the  King  is  received  by  the  Governor 
of  Massachusetts  colony?" 

"What  do  you  mean,  fellow  shouted  the  enraged  gov- 
ernor. 

"I  mean  this,"  replied  Samuel  Shattuck,  taking  a  paper 
from  his  belt  and  with  shining  eyes  stepping  forward.  "I 
mean  this :  that  I  am  the  representative  of  the  King.  I  have 
his  mandamus  and  here  are  my  credentials." 


430       THE  MARTYRDOiM  OF  QUAKERS 


"Let  me  see  them,"  said  Endicott. 

The  Quaker  handed  them  to  a  servant  who  took  them  to 
the  governor. 

Endicott  glanced  at  them,  bit  his  lip,  and  turned  purple 
with  rage,  then  exerting  all  his  self  possession,  he  rose  and 
faced  the  representative  of  his  soverign. 

"Replace  the  gentleman's  hat,"  he  said. 

Shattuck  took  his  hat  from  the  hands  of  the  amazed  and 
now  cringing  servant,  while  Sir  John  took  off  his  own  hat 
and  bowed  in  recognition  of  the  presence  of  a  superior 
power.  He  then  invited  the  Quaker  to  accompany  him  to 
the  home  of  Deputy  Governor  Bellingham  where  they  were 
received  with  honors  by  the  frightened  official.  At  the  end 
of  a  short  conference  Sir  John  Endicott  returned  the  Qua- 
ker's credentials,  saying,  "We  shall  obey  his  Majesty's  com- 
mands." 

So  complete  a  victory  without  striking  a  blow,  was  never 
known,  as  it  was  practically  the  end  of  a  bloody  war  in 
which  one  side  had  used  the  force  of  arms  and  manufactured 
laws,  while  the  other  had  employed  the  arts  of  peace,  passive 
resistance  and  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  amazement  and  chagrin  of  Endicott  can  be  imagined. 
He  did  not  dare  to  obey  the  mandam.us  and  send  his  prison- 
ers to  England  to  become  witnesses  against  himself. 
Christopher  Holder  and  Samuel  Shattuck  had  accomplished 
harm  enough,  so  to  avoid  "so  dangerous  a  doctrine"  he  really 
disobeyed  the  order  and  discharged  the  prisoners,  who  now 
held  meetings  of  rejoicing  in  all  parts  of  the  colonies.  The 
following  famous  poem,  "The  King's  Missive,"  by  Whit- 
tier,  is  founded  on  this  incident: 


r 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


"The  door  swung  open,  and  Rawson  the  clerk 

Entered,  and  whispered  under  breath, 
"There  waits  below  for  the  hangman's  work 

A  fellow  banished  on  pain  of  death — 
Shattuck,  of  Salem,  unhealed  of  the  whip. 
Brought  over  in  Master  Goldsmith's  ship 
At  anchor  here  in  a  Christian  port. 
With  freight  of  the  devil  and  all  his  sort!" 

Twice  and  thrice  on  the  chamber  floor 

Striding  fiercely  from  wall  to  wall, 
"The  Lord  do  so  to  me  and  more," 

The  Governor  cried,  "if  I  hang  not  all ! 
Bring  hither  the  Quaker."    Calm,  sedate, 
With  the  look  of  a  man  at  ease  with  fate, 
Into  that  presence  grim  and  dread 
Came  Samuel  Shattuck,  with  hat  on  head. 

"Off  with  the  knave's  hat  I"    An  angry  hand 

Smote  down  the  offense ;  but  the  wearer  said. 
With  a  quiet  smile,  "By  the  king's  command 
I  bear  his  message  and  stand  in  his  stead." 
In  the  Governor's  hand  a  missive  he  laid 
With  the  royal  arms  on  its  seal  displayed. 
And  the  proud  man  spake  as  he  gazed  thereat. 
Uncovering,  "Give  Mr.  Shattuck  his  hat." 

He  turned  to  the  Quaker,  bowing  low, — 

"The  king  commandeth  your  friends'  release. 

Doubt  not  he  shall  be  obeyed,  although 
To  his  subjects'  sorrow  and  sin's  increase. 

What  he  here  enjoineth,  John  Endicott, 

His  loyal  subject,  questioneth  not. 

You  are  free !  God  grant  the  spirit  you  own 

May  take  you  from  us  to  parts  unknown." 


432       THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  QUAKERS 


Endicott  now  sent  a  deputation  to  London  to  clear  him- 
self, if  possible,  selecting  the  notorious  Norton,  who  had 
been  a  prominent  figure  in  all  the  barbarities  practiced,  and 
an  equally  undesirable  person,  a  prosecuting  magistrate 
named  Simon  Bradstreet,  famous  as  a  "Quaker  baiter." 
These  men  denied  all  participation  in  the  extreme  proceed- 
ings in  Boston,  but  John  Copeland  and  Christopher  Holder, 
each  with  one  ear,  were  in  London,  and  with  George  Fox  as 
spokesman,  charged  them  with  murder,  and,  hearing  that 
the  father  of  the  murdered  Robinson  was  coming  to  make 
charges  against  them,  they  literally  fled.  Bowden  says: 
"This  mission  was  a  complete  failure."  The  historian  Neil 
writes:  "When  the  Rev.  Norton  came  home  (to  Boston) 
his  friends  were  very  shy  of  him,  and  some  of  the  people 
told  him  to  his  face  that  he  had  lain  the  foundation  of  the 
ruin  of  their  liberties,  which  struck  him  to  the  heart  and 
brought  him  to  such  a  melancholy  habit  of  body  as  to  hasten 
his  death." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS. 

Among  the  many  interesting  types  of  women  Quakers  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  none  stands  out  with  greater  dis- 
tinctness than  Mary  Dyer  or  Dier,  the  wife  of  William 
Dyer — "the  pride  of  Somerset  in  Elizabethan  days."  How 
Mary  Dyer  became  so  notable  a  figure  in  colonial  history, 
the  subject  of  many  monographs,  public  documents  and 
books  even  in  the  nineteenth  century,  can  be  best  explained 
by  glancing  very  briefly  at  one  of  the  peculiar  religious 
cults  of  previous  years. 

In  a  review  of  early  religions,  it  is  seen  that  many  held 
the  doctrine  that  sin  was  a  mere  incident  of  life,  or  the  body, 
and  that  a  regenerate  soul  was  so  pure  that  sin  was  impos- 
sible. This  was  a  form  of  Gnosticism,  and  was  held  by 
many  who  had  not  the  faintest  idea  what  it  meant.  In 
1492-1656,  John  Agricold  of  Germany,  "received"  this 
doctrine,  and  preached  it  as  a  part  of  a  demonstration 
against  the  Catholic  Church;  and  in  1600-1642,  the  Rev. 
Tobias  Crisp  became  the  advocate  in  England  of  a  species  of 
ultra-Calvinism,  which  found  its  expression  in  Puritan 
theology,  as  a  doctrine  embodying  the  idea  that  the  perfect 
man  or  woman  could  become  spiritually  perfect  by  having 
his  sins  transferred  to  Christ,  who  became  the  transgressor, 
thus  relieving  the  real  sinner,  and  leaving  him  pure  and  im- 
maculate. This  was  a  most  comforting  and  convenient 
doctrine,  which  gave  the  name  Antinomians  to  its  followers, 
who,  to  reduce  their  ambiguous  religion  to  pseudo  under- 
28 


434       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


standable  terms,  refused  to  accept  the  obligation  of  the 
moral  law,  as  it  was  understood  in  the  Gospel.  It  little  mat- 
ters how  abstruse,  impossible  or  vacuous  an  idea  may  be, 
how  involved  or  platitudinous  it  is,  if  advanced  with  cour- 
age and  conviction  by  some  one  who  really  believes  in  it,  fol- 
lowers will  always  be  found;  and  this  singular,  not  to  say 
absurd,  doctrine  has  always  had  advocates  who  believe  in 
some  form  of  Gnosticism. 

Early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  clergyman  named 
John  Cotton,  held  the  pastorate  of  St.  Botolph  in  Boston, 
England,  then  later  came  to  America  and  became  one  of  the 
striking  figures  in  the  American  Boston.  He  was,  for  that 
time,  a  man  of  high  learning  and  intelligence ;  but  his  fame 
rests  mainly  on  his  intolerance.  Among  those  who  followed 
John  Cotton  to  America  was  John  Hutchinson  and  his 
wife,  Anne  Marbury  Hutchinson,  the  daughter  of  a  dis- 
tinguished London  clergyman,  and  a  descendant  of  Dryden, 
the  poet  laureate.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was,  without  question, 
one  of  the  cleverest  women  in  the  Colonies — witty,  active, 
ambitious  and  impelled  by  mental  activity  to  become  a 
leader,  she  seized  upon  the  old  doctrine  of  Agricola,  Tobias 
and  others,  and  expounded  it  so  cleverly  that  young  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  who  was  then  governor,  was  at  his  wits'  end. 
Men  and  women,  even  the  clergy,  as  John  Cotton,  flocked  to 
the  standard  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  they  soon  split  the 
theology  of  the  Puritans,  and  gave  the  believers  in  witch- 
craft and  other  cults  and  superstitions  something  new  to  dis- 
cuss. 

The  pseudo  new  party  became  known  as  the  Antinomians, 
from  the  fact  that  they  practically  denied  the  obligations  of 
the  moral  law,  claiming  that  they  were  emancipated  from  it 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  435 


by  the  Gospel.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  claimed  much  for  a 
certain  ''supernatural  light,"  in  this  respect  resembling  the 
"inner  light"  of  Fox  and  the  Quakers,  that  has  been  made 
much  of.  This  extraordinary  and  vague  cult  was  not  so  re- 
markable as  some  of  the  religious  theories  advanced  in  the 
twentieth  century,  which  have  no  rhyme  or  reason  (as  that  of 
Dowie,  to  mention  but  one)  ;  but  as  the  population  of  Amer- 
ica was  not  large,  the  Antinomians  created  a  sensation,  and 
for  a  while  demoralized  the  Puritans,  as  did  witchcraft  and 
other  weird  delusions  which  have  counterparts  among  the 
ignorant  in  every  land  to-day. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Puritans  took  exception  to  the 
doctrines  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  though  there  was  nothing 
criminal  or  threatening  about  them,  and  she  was  arrested 
and  brought  to  trial.  She  testified,  among  other  things,  that 
she  had  obtained  information  by  an  "immediate  revelation," 
or  "by  the  voice  of  his  own  spirit  in  my  soul ;" — again  the 
idea  of  the  inner  light  of  Fox.  The  result  of  her  trial  was 
that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  cast  out,  exiled,  and  banished 
from  the  colony. 

The  words  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wilson  are  prophetic  of 
the  greater  intolerance  to  come  in  1656,  as  she  stood  up  to 
receive  her  sentence;  he  said,  "In  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  I  do  not  only 
pronounce  you  worthy  to  be  cast  out,  but  I  do  cast  you  out; 
and  in  the  name  of  Christ  I  do  deliver  you  up  to  Satan.  I 
do  account  you  from  this  time  forth  to  be  a  heathen  and  a 
publican.  I  command  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
of  this  church  as  a  leper  to  withdraw  yourself  out  of  this 
congregation."  As  the  woman  once  honored,  now  under  the 
ban  of  public  disfavor,  really  guiltless  of  any  infraction  of 


436       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


the  moral  law,  went  forth,  a  woman  named  Mary  Dyer 
arose,  clasped  her  arm,  and  accompanied  her  into  exile. 
They  journeyed  to  Rhode  Island,  and  a  few  years  later 
Mary  Dyer  sailed  for  England ;  there,  finding  in  the  doctrine 
of  George  Fox  much  with  which  she  sympathized ,  she 
joined  the  Friends,  and  became  a  minister. 

Mary  Dyer  returned  to  Boston  in  1656  with  Ann  Burke, 
en  route  for  Rhode  Island,  arriving  a  few  days  after  the 
banishment  of  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland  and 
the  rest  of  the  Quakers  who  came  to  America  in  the  "Speed- 
well." 

The  two  women  were  at  once  arrested  as  "plain  Quakers" 
and  thrown  into  jail,  and  despite  their  protests,  kept  there 
several  months.  Mary  Dyer's  release  was  finally  obtained 
by  her  husband  who  was  placed  under  heavy  bonds  not  to 
allow  her  to  sleep  in  any  house  in  the  colony  or  to  speak  to 
anyone. 

Mrs.  Dyer  had  been  an  early  convert  and  friend  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson.  She  was  in  every  sense  a  woman  of  repute  and 
of  good  family  and  her  subsequent  history  fills  a  conspicuous 
niche  in  the  archives  of  New  England  devoted  to  intoler- 
ance, martyrdom,  and  the  victims  of  bigotr\\  Originally 
from  London,  the  Dyers  had  gone  to  Boston,  where  they 
joined  the  Church  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson  in  1635,  and 
were  numbered  among  the  intelligent  citizens,  being  above 
reproach  and  above  the  average  in  education  and  culture. 
Dyer  held  many  positions  of  public  importance.  In 
1638  he  was  elected  clerk,  and  in  1640-7,  was  secretary  of 
Portsmouth  and  Newport.  Later  on,  he  became  the  General 
Recorder  under  the  Parliamentary  patent,  and  among  his 
later  honors  was  that  of  attorney  general  of  the  colony. 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  437 


Mrs.  Dyer  became  a  prominent  figure  as  a  Quaker  min- 
ister in  Rhode  Island,  and  with  their  six  children  the  Dyers 
became  the  ancestors  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  citi- 
zens of  the  state  and  nation.  An  earnest  minister,  Mary 
Dyer  traveled  over  the  new  country,  and  in  1658  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  colony  of  New  Haven  for  preaching. 

We  have  seen  John  Copeland,  Christopher  Holder  and 
Richard  Doudney  preaching  in  New  England.  In  June, 
1659,  William  Robinson  of  London,  and  Marmaduke 
Stephenson  of  Holderness,  now  in  Rhode  Island,  felt  a  call 
to  enter  Massachusetts.  They  were  accompanied  by 
Patience  Scott,  a  young  girl,  and  later  a  sister-in-law  of 
Christopher  Holder,  and  Nicholas  Davis  of  Rhode  Island 
colony.  They  were  promptly  thrown  into  jail,  where  al- 
ready awaiting  sentence  were  Christopher  Holder  and  others. 
Mary  Dyer  followed  them  some  time  later  and  was  thrown 
into  jail  with  them,  and  on  September  12,  1659,  they  were 
banished  on  pain  of  death.  Patience  Scott  being  admonished 
by  the  court  and  sent  home.  Nicholas  Davis  and  Mary 
Dyer  obeyed  the  admonition,  but  Robinson  and  Stephenson 
felt  it  their  duty  to  remain,  and  continued  their  ministry, 
when  they  were  again  arrested.  There  was  a  close  intimacy 
between  the  Scott,  Holder  and  Dyer  families,  Christopher 
Holder  later  marrying  Mary  Scott,  and  when  it  was  learned 
that  the  maimed  Holder  was  again  in  jail,  threatened  with 
torture,  Mary  Dyer,  Hope  Clifton  and  Mary  Scott  walked 
through  the  forest  to  Boston  from  Providence,  to  plead  for 
his  release  and  that  of  others.  Mary  Dyer  was  arrested 
while  speaking  to  Holder  through  the  prison  bars,  convey- 
ing to  the  victims  the  messages  of  Friends,  and  again  cast 
into  jail. 


438      MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


There  was  no  mistaking  this  move  of  Holder,  Copeland, 
Robinson,  Stephenson  and  Mary  Dyer.  They  deliberately 
challenged  the  legal  right  of  Endicott  to  carry  out  the  death 
penalty,  they  did  what  their  compatriots  were  doing  in  Eng- 
land, returned  to  the  field  as  soon  as  they  were  released, 
willing  to  lay  down  their  lives,  if  necessary,  yet  never  strik- 
ing a  blow  in  retaliation.  Passive  non-resistance  and  relig- 
ious appeals  constituted  the  ammunition  and  weapons  of 
this  Colonial  Quaker  army,  where  each  soldier  was  a  general, 
and  its  effectiveness  was  one  of  the  marvels  of  a  century 
of  intolerance.  The  prisoners  virtually  threw  down  the 
glove.  They  had  all  been  banished  with  the  assurance  that 
if  they  returned  death  awaited  them.  They  returned  in 
face  of  the  law  and  menace,  their  excuse  being  that  they  had 
been  so  commanded  by  the  Lord.  Endicott,  who  listened 
to  this  plea,  was  frankly  nonplused,  and  doubtless  did  not 
desire  to  go  to  the  last  extreme. 

When  they  were  brought  before  the  magistrates,  the  lat- 
ter said,  "We  desire  not  your  death.  We  have  made  many 
laws  and  endeavored  in  several  ways  to  keep  you  from 
among  us,  but  neither  whipping  or  punishment,  nor  cutting 
of  ears  (Holder  and  Copeland),  nor  banishment  upon  pain 
of  death  will  keep  you  from  among  us."  This  was  the  pre- 
lude, then  follows — "Hearken  now  to  your  sentence  of 
death."  Robinson  asked  to  read  a  paper  explaining  why 
they  came,  but  the  magistrates  and  Endicott  refused  to 
listen,  and  they  were  sentenced.  Mary  Dyer  was  then 
brought  out,  and  Endicott  pronounced  sentence  upon  her: 
"Mary  Dyer,  you  shall  go  from  here  to  the  place  from 
where  you  came,  and  from  thence  to  the  place  of  execution, 
and  there  be  hanged  until  you  be  dead."    "The  Lord's  will 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  439 


be  done,"  replied  the  minister  of  the  Quakers.  "Take  her 
away,  marshal,"  replied  Endicott  and  she  was  led  away, 
praying  to  the  Lord. 

The  Quakers  had  many  sympathizers  in  Boston,  and  there 
were  many  protests.  Governor  Winthrop  came  from  Con- 
necticut to  protest  against  this  crime  of  the  century.  He 
said  he  would  go  down  on  his  knees  to  stop  it,  if  necessary. 
Colonel  Temple,  Governor  of  Arcady  and  Nova  Scotia,  filed 
his  protest  with  the  authorities,  and  many  more,  but  with- 
out avail.  The  Quakers  practically  shut  themselves  out,  as 
a  number  of  Friends,  among  whom  were  Daniel  Gould  of 
Newport,  William  King,  Hannah  Trask,  Robert  Harper  of 
Sandwich,  Provided  Southwick  (later  offered  for  sale  as  a 
slave),  Margaret  Smith  and  Alice  Cowland,  had  walked 
from  Salem,  bearing  grave  clothes,  announcing  to  the 
authorities  of  Boston  that  they  had  come  at  the  behest  of 
the  Lord,  "to  look  your  bloody  laws  in  the  face." 

Endicott  planned  to  execute  Robinson  and  Stephenson, 
and  to  carry  the  execution  of  Mary  Dyer  to  the  moment  be- 
fore death,  hoping  that  she  would  weaken  or  recant;  as  they, 
doubtless,  felt  some  qualms  of  conscience  or  fear  of  the  ef- 
fect of  hanging  a  woman.  Tt  was  designed  to  have  a  pre- 
tended reprieve  arrive  at  the  last  moment,  which  shows  that 
they  did  not  understand  Mary  Dyer.  The  27th  of  October, 
1659,  was  set  as  the  day  of  execution,  and  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple came  in  from  the  surrounding  country,  men  and  women 
who  had  been  involved  in  witchcraft  charges,  clergymen  and 
laymen.  The  following  is  a  letter  written  by  William 
Robinson : 

"On  the  8th  day  of  the  8th  Month,  in  the  after  part  of 
the  day,  Travelling  betwixt  Newport  in  Rhode  Island  and 


440       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


Daniel  Gould's  house,  with  my  dear  brother,  Christopher 
Holder,  the  Word  of  the  Lord  came  expressly  to  me,  which 
did  fill  me  immediately  with  Life  and  Power,  and  heavenly 
Love,  by  which  he  constrained  me,  and  commanded  me  to 
pass  to  the  Town  of  Boston,  to  lay  down  my  life,  in  his 
Will,  for  the  Accomplishing  of  His  service,  which  He  had 
to  be  performed  at  the  Day  appointed.  To  which  Heavenly 
voice  I  presently  yielded  Obedience,  not  questioning  the 
Lord  how  He  would  bring  the  Thing  to  pass,  since  I  was  a 
Child,  and  Obedience  was  Demanded  of  me  by  the  Lord, 
who  filled  me  with  living  Strength  and  Power  from  His 
heavenly  Presence,  which  at  that  time  did  mightily  Over- 
shadow me,  and  my  Life  at  that  time  did  say  Amen  to  what 
the  Lord  required  of  me,  and  had  Commanded  m.e  to  do,  and 
willingly  was  I  given  up  from  that  time,  to  this  Day,  to  do 
and  perform  the  Will  of  the  Lord,  whatever  became  of  my 
Body;  for  the  Lord  had  said  unto  me,  'thy  Soul  shall  rest  in 
everlasting  Peace,  and  thy  Life  shall  enter  into  Rest,  for 
being  Obedient  to  the  God  of  thy  life.'  I  was  a  Child,  and 
durst  not  question  the  Lord  in  the  least,  but  rather  was 
willing  to  lay  down  my  Life,  than  to  bring  Dishonour  to  the 
Lord;  and  as  the  Lord  made  me  willing,  dealing  Gently  and 
Kindly  with  me,  as  a  Tender  Father  by  a  Faithful  Child, 
whom  he  dearly  Loves,  so  the  Lord  did  deal  with  me  in 
Ministering  his  Life  unto  me,  which  gave  and  gives  me 
strength  to  perform  what  the  Lord  required  of  me ;  and  still 
as  T  did  and  do  stand  in  need,  he  Ministered  and  Ministreth 
more  Strength,  and  Virtue,  and  heavenly  Power  and  Wis- 
dom, whereby  I  was  and  am  made  strong  in  God,  not  fear- 
ing what  Man  shall  be  suffered  to  do  unto  me." 

Marmaduke  Stephenson  also  left  a  letter  written  a  short 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  441 


time  previous:  "In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1655,  I  was 
at  the  Plough  in  the  east  parts  of  Yorkshire  in  Old  England, 
near  the  place  where  my  Outward  Being  was,  and  as  I 
walked  after  the  Plough,  I  was  filled  with  the  Love  and  the 
Presence  of  the  Living  God  which  did  Ravish  my  Heart 
when  I  felt  it;  for  it  did  increase  and  abound  in  me  like 
a  Living  Stream,  so  did  the  Love  and  Life  of  God  run 
through  me  like  precious  Ointment,  giving  a  pleasant 
Smell,  which  made  me  stand  still;  and  as  I  stood  a  little 
still,  with  my  Heart  and  Mind  stayed  on  the  Lord,  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  came  to  me,  in  a  still,  small  voice, 
which  I  did  hear  perfectly,  saying  to  me,  in  the  Secret 
of  my  Heart  and  Conscience,  'I  have  Ordained  Thee 
a  prophet  unto  the  Nations.'  And  at  the  hearing  of  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  I  was  put  to  a  stand,  being  that  I  was  but 
a  Child  for  a  Weighty  Matter.  So  at  the  time  appointed, 
Barbadoes  was  set  before  me,  unto  which  I  was  required  of 
the  Lord  to  go,  and  leave  my  dear  loving  Wife  and  tender 
Children;  For  the  Lord  said  unto  me  immediately  by  his 
Spirit,  That  he  would  be  a  Husband  to  my  Wife,  and  as  a 
Father  to  my  Children,  and  they  should  not  want  in  my 
Absence,  for  he  would  provide  for  them  when  I  was  gone. 
And  I  believed  that  the  Lord  would  perform  what  he  had 
spoken,  because  I  was  made  willing  to  give  up  myself  to  his 
Work  and  Service  (with  my  dear  Brother)  under  the 
Shadow  of  his  Wings,  who  hath  made  us  willing  to  lay 
down  our  Lives  for  His  own  name  Sake.  So,  in  Obedience  to 
the  Living  God,  I  made  preparation  to  pass  to  Barbadoes  in 
the  4th  month,  1658.  So,  after  some  time,  I  had  been  on  the 
Island  in  the  Service  of  God,  I  heard  that  New  England  had 
made  a  Law  to  put  the  Servants  of  the  Living  God  to  death. 


442       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


if  they  returned  after  they  were  sentenced  away,  which  did 
come  near  to  me  at  that  time ;  and  as  I  considered  the  Thing, 
and  pondered  it  in  my  Heart,  immediately  came  the  Word 
of  the  Lord  unto  me,  saying,  Thou  knowest  not  but  that 
thou  mayst  go  thither.  But  I  kept  this  Word  in  my  Heart, 
and  did  not  declare  it  to  any  until  the  time  Appointed.  So, 
after  that,  a  Vessel  was  made  ready  for  Rhode  Island,  which 
I  passed  in.  So,  after  a  little  time  that  I  had  been  there, 
visiting  the  Seed  which  the  Lord  hath  Blessed,  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying.  Go  to  Boston,  with  thy 
Brother,  William  Robinson.  And  at  His  Command  I  was 
Obedient,  and  gave  myself  up  to  do  His  will,  that  so  His 
work  and  Service  may  be  accomplished;  For,  he  had  said  to 
me.  That  he  had  a  great  Work  for  me  to  do;  which  is  now 
to  come  to  pass ;  And  for  yielding  Obedience  to,  and  obeying 
the  Voice  and  Command  of  the  Everlasting  God,  which 
created  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  the  Fountains  of  Waters, 
Do,  I,  with  my  dear  Brother,  suffer  outward  Bonds  near 
unto  Death.  And  this  is  given  forth  to  be  upon  Record, 
that  all  people  may  know,  who  hear  it,  That  we  came  not  in 
our  own  Wills,  but  in  the  Will  of  God.  Given  forth  by  me 
who  am  known  to  Men  by  the  name  of 

Marmaduke  Stephenson, 
But  who  have  a  new  name  given  me,  which  the  World 
knows  not  of,  written  in  the  book  of  Life. 
^Written  in  Boston  prison 
in  the  8th  month,  1659." 

Boston  was  the  scene  of  great  excitement  on  the  day  of 

*These  letters  of  Robinson  and  Stephenson  are  interesting  as  show- 
ing how  positive  was  their  belief  that  God  spoke  directly  to  them. 


r 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  443 


execution.  Troops  were  distributed  about  to  quell  rioting. 
Early  in  the  morning  a  crowd  assembled  at  the  prison  and 
Robinson  spoke  to  tliem  through  the  prison  bars,  so  enraging 
the  jailer  that  he  charged  them,  bowling  them  over,  striking 
them  down,  placing  them  all  in  a  dark  cell.  Captain 
James  Oliver  had  charge  of  the  troops.  The  two  men  were 
ironed  and  with  Mary  Dyer  between  them,  the  march  to  the 
Common  was  taken  up,  the  band  playing,  the  mob  hooting, 
and  threatening  according  to  their  views.  Mary  Dyer  took 
the  hands  of  her  fellows  and  was  rebuked  by  the  marshal; 
she  replied,  that  "it  is  an  hour  of  the  greatest  joy  I  can  en- 
joy in  this  world."  The  prisoners  tried  to  speak,  but  when 
they  began  the  marshal  ordered  the  drums  to  be  beaten  to 
deaden  their  words.  The  procession  stopped  at  an  elm  tree 
on  the  common,  near  the  Mollis  Street  Church,  and  as  the 
men  stood  with  their  hats  on,  they  were  taunted  by  the  Rev- 
erend Wilson,  who  presents  a  melancholy  spectacle  in  that 
connection.  A  ladder  was  placed  against  the  tree  and  the 
prisoners  having  the  rope  about  their  necks,  were  forced  to 
climb  upward,  the  end  was  thrown  over  the  limb  and  fast- 
ened. William  Robinson  was  killed  first,  and  just  before 
they  jerked  the  ladder  away  to  let  him  swing,  he  cried  out  so 
all  could  hear,  "I  suffer  for  Christ,  in  whom  I  have  lived  and 
for  whom  I  die."  Stephenson,  as  he  stood  on  the  ladder, 
said,  "Be  it  known  unto  all  this  day  that  we  suffer  not  as 
evil  doers,  but  for  conscience  sake."  This,  and  the  ladder 
was  jerked  aside  and  he  swung  into  eternity  for  insisting 
upon  the  right  of  a  free  conscience  in  Boston  in  1659. 

The  bogus  execution  of  Mary  Dyer,  ((the  ancestor  of 
Governor  Elisha  Dyer  of  Rhode  Island  in  the  nineteenth 
century)  now  proceeded.    She  had  been  standing  by  the 


444 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


ladder  with  t±ie  rope  about  her  neck,  awaiting  her  turn, 
watching  the  execution  of  her  companions.  Her  limbs  were 
tied,  and  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wilson,  her  old  pastor,  doubt- 
less knowing  that  it  was  a  farce,  yet  went  so  far  as  to  throw 
his  handkerchief  over  her  face.  She  was  forced  up  the  lad- 
der and  stood  for  a  moment  awaiting  the  summons  while  the 
men  in  the  secret  watched  her  with  amazement,  wonder  and 
consternation. 

No  regret,  nothing  apparently  but  joy  at  the  anticipation 
of  joining  her  dead  companions;  no  resentment,  only  the 
embodiment  of  courage,  bravery  and  religious  faith,  this 
good  woman  believing  that  she  was  gazing  into  eternity. 
The  executioner  placed  his  hand  upon  the  ladder  as  he  had 
done  with  Robinson  and  Stephenson ;  was  apparently  about 
to  push  it  aside,  when  a  shout  came  down  the  wind — "A  re- 
prieve! a  reprieve  I"  and  the  sordid,  brutal  joke  or  farce, 
ended.  In  the  records  of  Massachusetts  Colony  IV-part  page 
384,  is  found  the  following,  showing  that  it  was  a  part  of 
the  order  of  the  court : 

"It  is  ordered  that  the  said  Mary  Dyer  shall  have  liberty- 
for  forty-eight  hours  to  depart  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  after 
which  time,  being  found  therein,  she  is  to  be  forthwith  exe- 
cuted. And  it  is  further  ordered  that  she  shall  be  carried  to 
the  place  of  execution  and  there  to  stand  upon  the  Gallows 
with  a  rope  about  her  neck  until  the  Rest  be  executed ;  and 
then  to  return  to  the  prison  and  remain  as  aforesaid." 

The  prisoner  was  taken  down  and  carried  back  to  the 
House  of  Correction.  The  reprieve  which  had  been  written 
some  days  previous  is  as  follows : 

"Whereas  Mary  Dyer  is  condemned  by  the  General  Court 
to  be  executed  for  her  offences,  on  the  petition  of  William 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


445 


have  liberty  for  forty-eight  howers  after  this  day  to  depart 
Dier,  hir  sonne,  it  is  ordered  that  the  said  Mary  Dyer  shall 
out  of  this  jurisdiction,  after  which  time,  being  found  there- 
in, she  is  forthwith  to  be  executed,  and  in  the  meane  time 
that  she  be  kept  a  close  prisoner  till  hir  sonne  or  some  other 
be  ready  to  carry  hir  away  within  the  aforesaid  tyme;  and 
it  is  further  ordered,  that  she  shall  be  carried  to  the  place 
of  execution,  and  there  to  stand  upon  the  gallows,  with  a 
rope  about  her  necke,  till  the  rest  be  executed,  and  then  to 
returne  to  the  prison  and  remain  as  aforesaid." 

Later  when  this  was  read  to  her,  she  sent  this  message  to 
the  General  Court:  "My  life  is  not  accepted,  neither  avail- 
eth  me,  in  comparison  with  the  lives  and  liberty  of  the 
Truth  and  Servants  of  the  living  God,  for  which  in  the 
Bowels  of  Love  and  Meekness  I  sought  you ;  yet  nevertheless 
with  wicked  Hands  have  you  put  two  of  them  to  Death, 
which  makes  me  feel  that  the  Mercies  of  the  Wicked  is 
cruelty.  I  rather  chuse  to  Dye  than  to  live,  as  from  you, 
as  Guilty  of  their  Innocent  Blood." 

The  officials  were  now  determined  to  get  rid  of  her,  so 
they  placed  her  on  a  horse  which  was  led  by  some  soldiers 
into  the  forest,  and  forced  to  leave  the  colony.  Later  she 
sailed  to  Shelter  Island  where  in  the  home  of  Nathaniel 
Sylvester,  she  found  rest  with  Lawrence  and  Cassandra 
Southwick.* 

Public  opinion  had  been  so  aroused  in  Boston  and  Eng- 
land by  the  hanging  of  the  American  Quakers  that  Endicott 

*The  only  crime  that  can  be  traced  to  the  Dyers  is  the  naming  of 
one  of  their  sons  Mahershallalkashbaz,  for  which  information  I  am 
indebted  to  Horatio  Rogers,  late  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Rhode  Island  and  lineal  descendant  of  Governor  Walter 
Clark,  the  famous  Quaker  governor  of  Rhode  Island. 


446       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


and  his  supporters  put  forth  every  effort  to  vindicate  them- 
selves, and  this  defense  took  the  form  of  a  Declaration  of 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  held  at  Boston, 
October  18,  1659,  concerning  the  execution  of  two  Quakers. 
This  paper  disappeared,  but  was  found  by  Mr.  Louis  Dyer* 
of  Oxford,  England,  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  The  Procla- 
mation is  as  follows : 

"A  Declaration  of  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, Holden  at  Boston  in  New  England,  October  18,  1659, 
Concerning  the  execution  of  two  Quakers. 

"Although  the  justice  of  our  proceedings  against  William 
Robinson,  Marmaduke  Stephenson  and  Mary  Dyer,  Sup- 
ported by  the  Authority  of  this  Court,  the  Lawes  of  the 
Country;  and  the  Law  of  God,  may  rather  persuade  us  to 
expect  encouragement  from  all  prudent  and  pious  men,  than 
convince  us  of  any  necessity  to  Apologize  for  the  same,  yet 
for  such  as  men  of  weaker  parts,  out  of  pitty  and  com- 
miseration (a  commendable  and  Christian  virtue,  yet  easily 
abused  and  susceptible  of  sinister  and  dangerous  impres- 
sions) for  want  of  full  information,  may  be  less  satisfied,  & 
men  of  perverser  principles,  may  take  occasion  hereby  to  cal- 
umniate us,  and  render  us  as  bloody  persecutors,  to  satisfie 
the  one  and  stop  the  mouth  of  the  other,  we  thought  it 
requisite  to  declare.  That  about  three  years  since  divers 
persons  professing  themselves  Quakers  (of  whose  pernic- 
ious Opinions  and  Practices  we  had  received  Intelligence 
from  good  hands,  from  Barbadoes  to  England),  arrived  at 
Boston,  whose  persons  were  only  secured  to  be  sent  away  by 
the  first  opportunity,  without  censure  or  punishment,  al- 
though their  professed  tenets,  turbulent  and  contemptuous 
behaviour  to  Authority  would  have  justified  a  severer  ani- 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  447 


madversion,  yet  the  prudence  of  this  Court  was  exercised 
onely  in  making  provision  to  secure  peace  and  order  here 
established  against  their  attempts  whose  design  (we  were 
well  assured  of  by  our  own  experience,  as  well  as  by  the  ex- 
ample of  their  predecessors  in  Munster)  was  to  undermine 
and  ruin  the  same,  And  accordingly  a  Law  was  made  and 
published  prohibiting  all  Masters  of  Ships  to  bring  any 
Quakers  into  this  jurisdiction  and  themselves  from  coming 
in  on  penalty  of  the  House  of  Correction  till  they  could  be 
sent  away.  Notwithstanding  which  by  a  back  door  they 
found  entrance,  and  the  penalty  inflicted  on  themselves, 
proving  insufficient  to  restrain  their  impudent  and  insolent 
obtrusions,  was  increased  by  the  loss  of  the  ears  of  those  that 
offended  the  second  time,  which  also  being  too  weak  a  de- 
fense against  their  impetuous  fanatick  fury,  necessitated  us 
to  endeavor  our  security,  and  upon  serious  consideration 
after  the  former  experiments,  by  their  incessant  assaults,  a 
Law  was  made  that  such  persons  should  be  banished  on  pain 
of  death,  according  to  the  example  of  England  in  their  pro- 
vision against  Jesuits,  which  sentence  being  regularly  pro- 
nounced at  the  last  Court  of  Assistants  against  the  parties 
above  named,  and  they  either  returning  or  continuing  pre- 
'  sumptuously  in  this  jurisdiction,  after  the  time  limited,  were 
apprehended,  and  owning  themselves  to  be  the  persons  ban- 
ished, were  sentenced  (by  the  Court)  to  death,  according  to 
the  Law  aforesaid  which  hath  been  executed  upon  two  of 
them.  Mary  Dyer,  upon  the  petition  of  her  son  and  the 
mercy  and  clemency  of  this  court,  had  liberty  to  depart 
within  two  dayes,  which  she  hath  accepted  of. 

"The  consideration  of  our  gradual  proceeding,  will  vindi- 
cate us  from  the  clamorous  accusations  of  severity;  our  own 


448       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


just  and  necessary  defense  calling  upon  us  (other  means 
fayling)  to  offer  the  poynt,  which  these  persons  have 
violently  and  wilfully  rushed  upon,  and  thereby  become 
felons  de  se,  which  might  it  have  been  prevented  and  the 
Soveraign  Law  Salus  popuU  been  preserved,  our  former 
proceedings,  as  well  as  the  sparing  Mary  Dyer,  upon  an  in- 
considerable intercession,  will  manifestly  evince,  we  desire 
their  lives  absent,  rather  than  their  death  present. 

Printed  by  their  order  in  New  England, 

Edward  Rawson,  Secretary. 

Reprinted  in  London,  1659." 

To  reply  to  this  aspersion  undoubtedly  drew  Mary  Dyer 
to  Boston  and  her  death.  She  arrived  on  the  scene  of  her 
former  trials  May  21,  1660,  and  was  promptly  arrested  and 
taken  before  Governor  Endicott.  "Are  you  the  same  Mary 
Dyer  that  was  here  before'^"  queried  Endicott.  "I  am  the 
same  Mary  Dyer  that  was  here  at  the  last  General  Court," 
she  replied.  ''Then,"  answered  the  Governor,  "sentence 
has  been  passed  upon  you,  and  you  must  prepare  for  execu- 
tion tomorrow."  To  this  she  replied,  "I  came  in  obedience 
to  the  will  of  God  to  the  last  General  Court,  desiring  you  to 
repeal  your  unrighteous  laws  of  banishment  on  pain  of 
death ;  and  that  same  is  my  work  now,  and  earnest  request, 
although  I  told  you  that  if  you  refused  to  repeal  them  the 
Lord  would  send  others  of  his  servants  to  witness  against 
them." 

Every  effort  of  son,  father,  and  others  was  made  to  save 
her.  The  following  letter  was  written  by  her  husband,  now 
a  manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the  state : 


r 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  449 


"Honored  Sir. 

"It  is  with  no  little  grief  of  mind,  and  sadness  of  heart 
that  I  am  necessitated  to  be  so  bould  as  to  supplicate  yor 
Honoured  self  wth  the  Honble  Assembly  of  yor  Generall 
Courte  to  extend  yor  mercy  and  favoure  once  agen  to  me  & 
my  children.  Little  did  I  dream  that  ever  I  should  have 
had  occasion  to  petiton  you  in  a  matter  of  this  nature,  but 
so  it  is  that  throu  the  devine  providence  and  yor  benignity 
my  sonn  obtayned  so  much  pitty  and  mercy  att  yor  hands  as 
to  enjoy  the  life  of  his  mother,  now  my  supplication  to  yor 
Honors  is  to  begg  affectionately,  the  life  of  my  deare  wife. 
Tis  true  I  have  not  seen  her  above  this  half  yeare  &  there- 
fore cannot  tell  how  in  the  frame  of  her  spiritt  she  was 
moved  thus  againe  to  runn  so  great  a  Hazard  to  herself,  and 
perplexity  to  me  &  mine  &  all  her  friends  &  well  wishers: 
so  itt  is  from  Shelter  Hand  about  by  Pequid  Narragansett 
&  to  the  Towne  of  Providence  she  secrettly  &  speedyly 
journeyed,  &  as  secrettly  from  thence  came  to  yor  jurisdic- 
tion, unhappy  journy  may  I  say,  &  woe  to  that  generation 
say  I  that  gives  occasion  thus  of  grief  &  troble  (to  thos  that 
desire  to  be  quiett)  by  helping  one  another  (as  I  may  say)  to 
Hazard  their  lives  for  I  know  not  what  end  or  to  what  pur- 
pose: If  her  zeale  be  so  greatt  as  thus  to  adventure,  oh 
Lett  yor  favoure  &  Pitty  surmount  ett  &  save  her  life.  Lett 
not  yor  forwonted  compassion  bee  conquered  by  her  incon- 
siderate madness,  &  how  greatly  will  yor  renowne  be  spread 
if  by  so  conquering  you  become  victorious.  What  shall  I 
say  more?  I  know  you  are  all  sensible  of  my  condition, 
and  lett  the  reffect  bee,  and  you  will  see  whatt  my  petition 
is  and  what  will  give  me  &  mine  peace,  oh  Lett  mercies 

wings  once  more  sore  above  justice  ballance,  &  then  whilst 
29 


450       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 

I  live  shall  I  exalt  yor  goodness  butt  other  wayes  twill  be  a 
languishing  sorrow,  yea  so  great  that  I  shuld  gladly  suffer 
the  blow  att  once  much  rather  ;  I  shall  forbeare  to  trouble 
youre  Honr  wth  words  neyther  am  I  in  a  capacity  to  ex- 
patiat  myself  att  present :  1  only  say  that  yourselves  have 
been  &  are  or  may  bee  husbands  to  wife  or  wives,  so  am  I, 
yea  to  one  most  dearly  beloved :  oh  do  not  deprive  me  of  her, 
but  I  pray  give  her  me  once  agen  &  I  shall  be  so  much 
obleiged  for  ever,  that  I  shall  endeavor  continually  to  utter 
my  thanks  and  render  yor  Love  &  Honr  most  renowned: 
Pitty  mee,  I  begg  itt  with  teares,  and  rest  yor 

most  humbly  supplicant 

W  Dyre 

"Portsmo  27th,  of  3d:  1660 

"Most  Honed  Sr  Lett  these  lines  by  yor  favor  bee  my 
Petiton  to  yor  Honble  Generall  Court:  at  present  Sitting 

sd  W  D  " 

The  day  of  execution  was  June  1,  1660,  and  a  repetition 
of  the  former  scene  was  gone  through,  this  time  without  the 
farcial  reprieve.  As  Mary  Dyer  stood  on  the  ladder,  she 
was  told  that  she  would  be  given  her  liberty  if  she  would 
go  home  and  remain  away  from  the  colony.  Her  reply 
was,  "Nay,  I  cannot,  for  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Lord 
God  I  came,  and  in  His  will  I  abide  faithful  to  death." 
Captain  John  Webb  warned  her  that  she  was  guilty  of  her 
own  blood,  and  there  were  many  in  the  crowd,  particularly 
the  clergy,  who  were  more  than  pleased  to  see  the  execution, 
and  many  more  who  resented  the  act,  legal,  though  it  was 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  451 


an  outrage.  Among  them  was  Captain  Wanton*  an  officer 
of  the  Guard,  who  the  next  day  put  away  his  sword  and  be- 
came a  Quaker,  overwhelmed  by  the  marvelous  faith  of  this 
pure  wife,  mother  and  Quaker,  who  so  gladly  gave  up  her 
life  for  principle. 

She  stood  on  the  ladder  and  was  speaking  of  the  eternal 
happiness  she  was  about  to  inherit,  when  the  ladder  was 
pulled  away  and  her  body  swung  in  the  wind.  It  is  said 
that  it  was  thrown  into  a  ditch  and  lies  unmarked  in  Boston 
Common. 

It  might  be  assumed  that  the  execution  of  Mary  Dyer 
would  have  satisfied  the  officials,  but  in  1660  they  continued 
the  treatment  they  had  been  serving  out  to  the  Quakers. 
Unquestionably  Endicott,  Wilson,  Cotton  and  the  leaders 
in  the  violent  attacks  on  the  Quakers  were  actuated  by  a 
feeling  that  they  were  in  a  sense  a  dire  menace  to  the  colony. 
The  same  Puritans  had  just  emerged  from  the  witchcraft 
delusion,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  they  could  be- 
come terrorized  by  the  term  Quaker,  that  had  been  painted 
in  the  blackest  terms  by  English  writers. 

In  this  year,  one  of  the  most  flagrant  atrocities  was  the 
arrest  of  William  Leddra  of  Barbados.  He  was  kept  in 
ah  open  jail  in  mid- winter,  chained  to  a  log,  probably  in  the 
hope  that  he  would  die.  He  was  given  a  trial  in  January, 
1661,  and,  though  he  appealed  to  England,  was  sentenced 
to  be  hung,  and  was  executed  on  the  Common,  despite  the 


*This  Edward  Wanton  was  the  ancestor  of  several  Governors 
Wanton  of  Rhode  Island,  whose  pictures  may  be  seen  in  the  Newport 
Library,  and  in  the  City  Hall  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  A 
descendant  of  these  distinguished  men  is  Mrs.  Russell  Sage,  of  New 
York. 


452       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


efforts  of  Edward  Wharton  and  others  to  save  him.  So  died 
William  Leddra,  saying  to  a  friend  in  the  crowd,  "Know 
this  day  that  I  am  willing  to  offer  up  my  life  for  the  witness 
of  Jesus."  Edward  Wharton  was  beaten  and  banished; 
then  came  the  case  of  Wenlock  Christison  in  1661,  his  trial 
and  sentence  to  death.  But  the  end  of  the  Puritan  govern- 
ment was  at  hand.  Charles  the  Second  intervened,  and  the 
day  before  the  one  set  for  his  execution,  Christison  was  re- 
leased with  twenty-seven  Quakers,  who  had  been  languish- 
ing in  the  jails  of  the  colony.  Among  them  were  John 
Chamberlain,  John  and  Margaret  Smith,  Mary  Trask, 
Judith  Brown,  Peter  Pearson,  George  Wilson,  John  Burs- 
tow,  Elizabeth  Hooton,  Mary  Mallins,  Joan  Brocksoppe, 
Katherine  Chattam,  Mary  Wright,  Hannah  Wright,  Sarah 
Burden,  Sarah  Coleman  and  three  or  four  of  her  children, 
Ralph  Allen,  William  Allen  and  Richard  Kirby. 

The  Society  of  Friends  progressed  rapidly  without  any 
factions  or  internal  dissensions  until  1827,  when  an  ominous 
break  occurred  over  the  doctrines  of  Elias  Hicks.  As  a  re- 
sult, the  Society  separated  into  two  distinct  bodies,  known 
to  the  public  as  Orthodox  and  Hicksite,  though  they  both 
claimed  the  old  name,  "The  Religious  Society  of  Friends." 
The  cause  of  the  schism  was  Elias  Hicks,  a  popular  Long 
Island  minister,  whose  preaching  was  so  liberal  that  he  soon 
began  to  be  criticised  by  the  conservative  members,  who 
claimed  that  he  denied  or  questioned  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
the  doctrines  of  the  Atonement,  and  the  inspiration  and 
authority  of  the  Bible.  The  friends  and  adherents  of 
Hicks  replied  that  the  others  were  too  arbitrary,  that  the 
Friends  were  being  fatally  decimated  by  them.  Hicks 
was  a  gifted  and  magnetic  speaker,  very  influential,  hence 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  453 


he  succeeded  in  throwing  the  Society  into  a  chaotic  condition 
from  which  it  never  fully  recovered;  and  to-day  the  Hicks- 
ites  are  looked  upon  as  Unitarians  by  Orthodox  Friends, 
though  still  retaining  the  outward  guise  of  the  original 
Quakers. 

The  separation  was  complete  and  occasioned  much  hard 
feeling,  especially  when  the  question  of  the  division  of 
property  was  concerned.  In  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
Hicks  drew  away  two-thirds  of  the  Friends,  and  in  Balti- 
more, after  the  schism,  it  was  found  that  the  Orthodox  party 
represented  but  one-fifth  of  the  former  number.  In  Ohio 
the  division  was  about  equal,  but  in  Indiana  the  effect  of 
the  Hicksite  doctrine  was  hardly  felt.  New  England  and 
South  Carolina  Friends  remained  steadfast.  The  Hicksite 
faction  was  never  recognized  by  the  English  Friends,  and 
to-day  the  two  factions  stand  side  by  side,  the  Hicksites 
claiming  to  be  Quakers,  and  the  Orthodox  Friends  looking 
upon  them  as  Unitarians  in  the  Quaker  garb. 

There  are  at  present  seven  Yearly  Meetings  of  Hicksite 
Friends  in  America.  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Indiana  and 
Illinois,  Ohio,  Canada  and  New  York  representing  about 
twenty-one  thousand  members.  They  have  a  number  of 
schools,  a  college,  "Swarthmore,"  and  a  weekly  paper,  the 
"Friends  Intelligencer." 

There  have  also  been  slight  differences  between  the  Orth- 
odox Friends  in  America.  Joseph  John  Gurney  visited 
America  and  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  Friends. 
The  views  of  Gurney  were  in  no  sense  opposed  to  the  funda- 
mental interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  by  Fox;  but  he  was 
a  progressive,  and  his  broad  and  liberal  views  shocked  some 
of  the  old  and  very  conservative  Friends,  who  resented  his 


454      MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


attitude.  One,  John  Wilbur,  a  New  England  ultra-con- 
servative, was  their  chief  mouthpiece.  As  a  result,  the 
Friends  divided,  some  being  called  Gurneyites  and  others 
Wilburites;  but  the  schism  was  not  as  important  as  the 
one  caused  by  Elias  Hicks.  The  London  Meeting  stood  by 
Joseph  John  Gurney,  and  gave  the  Progressives  its  official 
recognition.  The  division  occurred  in  1845  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  in  Ohio  in  1854,  the  result  being  that  in  six  Yearly 
Meetings  there  were  two  factions.  At  the  present  time 
thirteen  progressive  meetings  are  connected  with  the  Lon- 
don and  Dublin  m.eetings,  through  official  correspondence, 
representing  about  ninety  thousand  members.  There  are 
six  Wilburite  meetings  (Conservative)  with  a  membership 
of  forty-five  hundred. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Philadelphia  is  not  in- 
cluded in  these,  though  through  Yearly  Meetings  it  did  rec- 
ognize the  Ohio  Wilburites,  but  later  withdrew,  very  wisely 
considering  that  the  main  issue  of  Quakerism  was  too  im- 
portant to  endanger  the  Society  by  discussions  over  what 
were  at  best  mere  trivialities.  Philadelphia  then  stood 
alone  and  is  to-day  considered  the  home  of  broad  but  Con- 
servative Quakerism  with  a  membership  of  about  four  thous- 
and eight  hundred. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  in  previous  pages  that  non-es- 
sentials were  often  the  cause  of  the  greatest  trouble  among 
the  Friends.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  pseudo  fundamen- 
tal weakness.  In  a  word,  a  sect  dominated  by  the  best  pos- 
sible motives,  a  religion  based  on  the  purest  ideals,  and  con- 
taining the  ethics  of  the  highest  philosophy,  is  suddenly  con- 
vulsed or  disturbed  by  a  catacl)^sm,  childish  in  its  nature. 
This  is  well  demonstrated  by  the  Gurney  schism.  Joseph 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS  455 


John  Gurney  was  a  man  of  the  highest  culture,  who  has  left 
his  impress  on  the  American  Quakers;  but  one  of  his  great- 
est crimes  was  in  carrying  a  Bible  to  meeting,  and  reading 
from  it.  This  dangerous  innovation  was  seized  upon,  and 
became  a  red  flag  among  the  Wilburites,  who  pointed  out 
that  it  savored  of  priests  and  the  world,  urging  that  a  min- 
ister should  not  have  aid  at  a  meeting  or  go  prepared,  or  as 
they  quaintly  expressed  it,  "go  before  the  guide." 

Hicks  was  charged  by  some  with  repudiating  the  Bible, 
and  Gurney,  in  a  sense,  was  said  to  have  repudiated  the  in- 
ner light,  the  informing  spirit.  He  was  not  content  to  sit 
in  silence  and  wait  for  the  word  to  come  to  him,  he  must 
have  the  Bible  to  read  from,  as  he  used  it  in  the  Friends 
School  at  Ackworth,  England,  where  he  endeavored  to  en- 
courage the  students  to  study  the  Bible,  and  to  use  it  as  their 
guide. 

The  conservative  or  Wilburite  doctrine  taught  that  the 
inner  light,  the  Divine  Spirit,  illuminated  the  mind  from 
within  and  was  the  guide,  the  main  essential,  and  should 
always  have  preference,  and  that  the  Scriptures  came  after. 
This  non-essential  occupied  the  Quakers  in  America  during 
•  thirty  years;  and  Joseph  John  Gurney,  one  of  the  most  in- 
tellectual members  of  the  Society,  was  criticised  and  attacked 
mainly  because  he  was  suspected  of  preparing  his  discourses 
"in  advance,"  which  was  far  from  a  dependence  on  the  inner 
light.  The  American  Friends  for  seven  years  made  every 
effort  to  induce  the  London  Yearly  Meeting  to  "silence" 
Gurney,  but  without  avail.  The  prominence  of  Wilbur 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  the  defacto  leader  of  the 
Conservative  party.  Wilbur's  platform  argument  or  favor- 
ite questions  were: 


456       MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 

1.  Whether  justification  precedes  or  follows  sanctifica- 
tion. 

2.  The  true  reason  for  observing  the  First  Day  of  the 
week,  instead  of  the  seventh. 

3.  Whether  in  the  next  world  we  will  be  given  natural 
or  spiritual  bodies. 

4.  Whether  the  Holy  Spirit  or  the  Bible  is  the  true 
religious  guide. 

These  four  cardinal  points  of  disagreement  are  the  chief 
ones  held  against  Gurney,  and  as  it  was  evident  that  none  of 
them  were  by  any  possibility  answerable,  it  was  plainly  to 
be  seen  that  the  controversy  would  sooner  or  later  die  a 
natural  death.  Yet  it  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  it  persisted 
for  years.  Several  good  things  came  out  of  the  various  con- 
troversies. Thorugh  the  influence  of  Joseph  John  Gurney  a 
Bible  society  was  formed  in  England,  in  which  movement  he 
was  joined  by  several  English  bishops,  a  movement  which 
spread  all  over  the  world.  As  these  lines  are  written  the 
citizens  of  Southern  California  have  raised  a  fund  to  place 
a  Bible  in  the  rooms  of  every  public  house  in  the  State  and 
are  doing  it. 

Elias  Hicks,  by  no  means  as  black  as  he  is  painted,  ac- 
complished one  work  of  profound  importance  to  the  world, 
which  even  his  most  virulent  critics  will  not  deny:  He  se- 
cured the  passage  of  an  act  freeing  the  negro  slaves  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  As  to  the  breadth  of  his  views.  Hicks 
held  that  they  were  in  accord  with  those  of  George  Fox,  and 
Worth  says :  "Judged  by  his  sermons.  Hicks  was  as  ortho- 
dox as  one-half  of  the  Protestant  clergy  of  today"  (1896). 

The  Yearly  Meeting,  now  known  as  a  General  Meeting, 
was  first  held  in  1661,  being  called  by  George  Rofe.  He 


MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


457 


says :  "We  came  in  at  Rhode  Island  and  appointed  a  gen- 
eral meeting  for  all  Friends  in  these  parts  (meaning  all  New 
England),  which  was  a  very  great  meeting  and  very  prec- 
ious, and  continued  four  days  together,  and  the  Lord  was 
with  his  people  and  blessed  them,  and  all  departed  in  peace. 
There  is  good  seed  in  that  people,  but  the  enemy  keeps  some 
under  through  their  cruel  persecution;  yet  their  honesty  pre- 
serves them,  and  the  seed  will  arise  as  way  is  made  for  the 
visitation  of  the  power  of  God  to  have  free  liberty  amongst 
them.'' 

No  records  are  available  of  this  General  Meeting  de- 
scribed by  John  Rof e  to  Richard  Hubberthorn ;  but  George 
Bishop  refers  to  it,  1661,  in  his  quaint  "New  England 
Judged" :  "About  this  time  the  general  meeting  at  Rhode 
Island,  about  sixty  miles  from  Boston,  was  set  up."  There 
is  every  reason  for  believing  that  these  General  Meetings 
continued  with  regularity  yearly,  from  now  on.  John 
Burnyeat  refers  to  it  in  1661  as  follows:  "I  took  shipping 
for  Rhode  Island,  and  was  there  at  their  Yearly  Meeting  in 
1671,  which  begins  the  Ninth  of  the  Fourth  Month  every 
year  and  continues  much  of  a  week,  and  is  a  general  once  a 
'  year  for  all  Friends  in  New  England." 

Rufus  Jones,  a  distinguished  student  of  history,  son  of 
the  much  beloved  Eli  and  Sibyl  Jones,  to  whom  Friends  are 
indebted  for  this  interesting  data,  also  quotes  George  Fox 
on  the  point  in  question,  showing  that  the  Yearly  Meeting 
was  begun  in  1661  and  continued  without  break.  It  would 
have  been  interesting  to  have  attended  this  yearly  Meeting; 
to  have  seen  the  distinguished  Quakers  on  the  "high  seat." 
Here  was  Governor  John  Wanton,  a  famous  preacher,  in  his 
scarlet  cloak.    Seven  times  this  Quaker  honored  Rhode 


458      MARY  DYER  AND  HER  FRIENDS 


Island,  and  four  terms  he  filled  as  deputy.  The  third  term 
had  not  assumed  the  deadful  menace  it  has  attained  in  the 
twentieth  century:  a  good  man  and  true  was  kept  in  office 
as  long  as  he  would  serve.  And  so  Stephen  Hopkins  was 
the  Quaker  Governor  for  nine  terms.  He  was  also  Chief 
Justice  for  many  terms,  and  his  name  is  the  only  Quaker 
signature  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  is  not 
exactly  correct  as  he  owned  a  slave  and  for  this  was  dis- 
owned by  the  Friends  in  1774,  so  that  while  a  Friend  at 
heart  he  had  been  disowned  two  years  previous  to  the  plac- 
ing of  his  signature  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Here  sat  William  Coddington,  a  founder  of  Rhode  Is- 
land; Nicholas  Easton,  who  built  the  first  house;  Christopher 
Holder  who  owned  fifty  acres  of  land  in  the  centre  of  New- 
port and  sold  it  for  $500  and  who  bought  the  island  of  Pa- 
tience from  Roger  Williams  to  give  his  daughter  Mary  as 
a  wedding  gift  when  she  married  the  famous  minister  Peleg 
Slocum;  Walter  Clark  might  have  been  seen  here,  honored 
by  the  colony  as  Governor  and  with  the  Deputy  Governor- 
ship for  three  terms;  John  Easton,  who  argued  and  pleaded 
with  King  Philip  for  arbitration  in  place  of  war;  Mary 
Dyer,  forbear  of  the  late  Governor  Genl.  Elisha  Dyer  of 
Rhode  Island,  but  few  of  the  distinguished  company  who 
gave  to  America  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries 
some  of  its  greatest,  best  and  strongest  characters. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS. 

Sir  John  Endicott,  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  Col- 
ony, who  was  responsible  for  most  of  the  atrocities,  died  in 
March,  1665,  and  immediately  following  his  decease  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  was  commanded  by  the 
Royal  Commissioners  to  remove  all  disabilities  from  the 
Quakers,  and  permit  them  to  enjoy  life  and  liberty  undis- 
turbed and  without  molestation.  It  is  rarely  that  the  Quak- 
ers displayed  any  trait  that  could  be  interpreted  as  vicious- 
ness,  but  Endicott  had  aroused  them  and  carried  his  atroci- 
ties to  the  limit,  and  they  denounced  him  in  fearless  terms  in 
book  and  pamphlet,  and  accomplished  his  downfall  without 
striking  a  physical  blow. 

The  superstitious  element  already  observed  among  them 
of  prophesying  against  those  who  unjustly  treated  them,  is 
seen  here, — a  mild  pseudo  evil  eye  which  was  cast  at  the 
offender.  It  is  very  evident  that  they  believed  that  the 
Lord  would  punish  those  who  waged  so  relentless  a  war 
•  against  his  chosen  people;  and  they  did  not  fail  to  find  evi- 
dence to  support  them  in  the  Gospel. 

Though  the  intervention  of  Charles  the  Second  put  a  stop 
to  the  extreme  Inquisition  methods  in  the  colonies,  it  did  not 
prevent  the  zealous  Puritans  from  creating  the  infamous 
Cart  Tail  Law,  which  consisted  in  fastening  men  and  women 
to  the  tail  of  a  cart,  driving  them  half  naked  through  the 
towns,  beating  them  as  the)^  walked.  The  following  is  a 
warrant  drawn  up  by  a  priest  who  acted  as  a  magistrate  in 
Dover : 


46o  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


"To  the  Constables  of  Dover,  Hampton,  Salisbury,  New- 
bury, Rowley,  Ipswich,  Wenham,  Lynn,  Boston,  Roxbury, 
Dedham,  and  until  these  vagabond  Quakers  are  carried  out 
of  this  jurisdiction. 

"You  and  every  one  of  you  are  required,  in  the  king's  maj- 
esty's name,  to  take  these  vagabond  Quakers,  Ann  Coleman, 
Mary  Tompkins,  and  Alice  Ambrose,  and  make  them  fast  to 
the  cart's  tail,  and  driving  the  cart  through  your  several 
towns,  to  whip  them  on  their  backs,  not  exceeding  ten  stripes 
apiece  on  each  of  them  in  each  town,  and  so  convey  them 
from  constable  to  constable,  till  they  come  out  of  this  juris- 
diction, as  you  will  answer  it  at  your  peril :  and  this  shall 
be  your  warrant. 

"Per  me, 

"Richard  Walden." 

"At  Dover,  dated,  Dec.  22,  1662." 

Men  and  women  were  beaten  in  this  way  in  various  parts 
of  New  England.  Elizabeth  Hooton  was  sentenced  to  be 
beaten  through  three  towns,  in  Cambridge,  Watertown  and 
Dedham,  and  was  then  placed  on  a  horse  and  driven  out 
into  the  wilderness  in  the  winter.  She  returned  to  Boston 
to  preach,  and  was  beaten,  half  naked,  through  Roxbury 
and  Dedham;  and  again  and  again,  the  last  time,  beaten 
almost  to  insensibility  for  coming  to  Boston  to  attend  the 
funeral  of  Endicott  in  1665. 

Space  does  not  permit  in  this  volume  a  description  of  all 
these  horrors,  nor  is  it  the  intention  to  give  more  than  a  few 
of  the  most  flagrant.  In  1 666,  the  era  of  barbarism  seemed 
to  have  ended  in  the  colonies.  Orders  came  from  the 
King,  "To  permit  such  as  desire  it  to  use  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  without  incurring  penalty,  reproach,  or  dis- 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  461 


advantage;  it  being  very  scandalous,"  continues  the  admon- 
ition, ''that  any  person  should  be  debarred  the  exercise  of 
their  religion,  according  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  Eng- 
land, by  those  who  were  indulged  with  the  liberty  of  being 
of  what  profession  they  pleased."  About  a  year  after,  a 
similar  admonition  was  addressed  to  the  government  of  Con- 
necticut that,  "All  persons  of  civil  lives  might  freely  enjoy 
the  liberty  of  their  consciences,  and  the  worship  of  God  in 
that  way  which  they  think  best." 

This  effectually  stopped  the  persecutions,  and  the  Quak- 
ers in  America  increased  in  numbers.  In  many  towns,  as 
Lynn,  Hampton,  Newport,  Providence,  Salem  and  others, 
they  became  among  the  most  influential  and  respected  citi- 
zens, and  convinced  their  most  rabid  opponents  that  their 
ways  were  ways  of  peace. 

In  his  Journal,  1671,  George  Fox  says: 

"I  mentioned  before,  that,  upon  notice  received  of  my 
wife's  being  had  to  prison  again,  I  sent  two  of  her  daughters 
to  the  king,  and  they  procured  his  order  to  the  sheriff  of 
Lancashire  for  her  discharge.  But  though  I  exepected  she 
would  have  been  set  at  liberty,  yet  this  violent  storm  of  per- 
.  secution  coming  suddenly  on,  the  persecutors  there  found 
means  to  hold  her  still  in  prison.  But  now  the  persecution 
a  little  ceasing,  I  was  moved  to  speak  to  Martha  Fisher,  and 
another  woman  friend,  to  go  to  the  king  about  her  liberty. 
They  went  in  the  faith,  and  in  the  Lord's  power;  and  he 
gave  them  favour  with  the  king,  so  that  he  granted  a  dis- 
charge under  the  broad  seal,  to  clear  both  her  and  her  estate 
after  she  had  been  ten  years  a  prisoner,  and  premunired; 
the  like  whereof  was  scarce  to  be  heard  in  England.  I  sent 
down  the  discharge  forthwith  by  a  friend;  by  whom  also  I 


462  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


wrote  to  her,  to  inform  her  how  to  get  it  delivered  to  the 
justices,  and  also  to  acquaint  her,  that  it  was  upon  me  from 
the  Lord  to  go  beyond  sea,  to  visit  the  plantations  in  Amer- 
ica, and  therefore  desired  her  to  hasten  to  London,  as  soon 
as  she  could  conveniently  after  she  had  obtained  her  liberty, 
because  the  ship  was  then  fitting  for  the  voyage.  In  the 
meantime  I  got  to  Kingston,  and  staid  at  John  Rous' s  till 
my  wife  came  up,  and  then  began  to  prepare  for  the  voyage. 
But  the  yearly  meeting  being  near  at  hand,  I  tarried  till  that 
was  over.  Many  friends  came  up  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the 
nation,  and  a  very  large  and  precious  meeting  it  was;  for  the 
Lord's  power  was  over  all,  and  his  glorious  everlastingly  re- 
nowned seed  of  life  was  exalted  above  all. 

"After  this  meeting  was  over,  and  I  had  finished  my 
services  for  the  Lord  in  England,  the  ship,  and  the  friends 
that  intended  to  go  with  me  being  ready,  I  went  to 
Gravesend  the  12th  of  the  6th  month.  The  friends  that 
were  bound  for  the  voyage  with  me  went  down  to  the  ship 
the  night  before.  Their  names  were  Thomas  Briggs,  Wil- 
liam Edmundson,  John  Rous,  John  Stubbs,  Solomon  Eccles, 
James  Lancaster,  John  Cartwright,  Robert  Widders,  George 
Pattison,  John  Hull,  Elizabeth  Hooton,  and  Elizabeth 
Miers.  The  vessel  we  were  to  go  in  was  a  yacht,  called  the 
Industry,  the  master's  name  was  Thomas  Forster,  and  the 
number  of  passengers  about  fifty." 

The  Industry  reached  Barbadoes  August  12,  1671,  and 
the  little  party  began  its  labors  at  once,  and  in  a  congenial 
and  receptive  field,  as  the  islands  early  had  produced  a  num- 
ber of  converts  to  Quakerism,  and  had  five  meeting  houses. 
Among  other  things,  George  Fox  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Governor,  in  which  he  defended  the  doctrine  of  the  Quakers. 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  463 


From  here  George  Fox  sailed  to  Jamaica  and  then  to 
America,  landing  on  the  coast  of  Maryland  and  making  his 
way  slowly  to  New  England,  arriving  at  Newport  the  30th 
of  May,  1672,  where  he  held  meetings  with  John  Burnyeat, 
John  Cartright,  George  Pattison,  John  Stubbs,  James  Lan- 
caster and  Robert  Widders.  While  in  Newport,  Fox  began 
a  temperance  crusade,  in  all  probability  the  first  one  inaug- 
urated in  the  town.  He  was  entertained  by  Governor  East- 
on  and  importuned  him  and  the  magistrates  to  pass  "a  law 
against  drunkenness  and  against  them  that  sell  liquors  to 
make  people  drunk,"  also  a  law  against  fighting,  swearing 
and  dueling. 

While  here,  he  was  challenged  to  a  theological  discussion 
by  Roger  Williams,  but  the  challenge  did  not  reach  him 
until  he  had  started  south.  William  Edmundson  endeavor- 
ed to  take  his  place,  and  so  successfully,  that  Roger  Wil- 
liams in  describing  him  said  that  he  had  "a  flash  of  wit,  a 
face  of  brass,  and  a  tongue  set  on  fire,  from  the  Hell  of 
lyes  and  fury."  George  Fox  traveled  through  Long  Island 
where  Christopher  Holder  joined  him,  and  many  of  the  old 
towns  as  Flushing,  where  stands  the  old  Bowne  House,  were 
'visited.  In  his  Journal,  he  says  "The  same  day  James  Lan- 
caster and  Christopher  Holder  went  over  the  bay  to  Rye  on 
the  continent  in  Governor  Winthrop's  government,  and  had 
a  meeting  there." 

The  growth  and  development  of  Quakerism  was  now  ex- 
tremely rapid.  The  three  colonies  of  Plymouth,  Massa- 
chusetts and  Maine  had  a  population  of  forty  thousand,  and 
Rhode  Island  six  thousand,  many  of  whom  were  Quakers, 
and  they  captured  many  distinguished  men,  including  the 
Wantons,  Eastons,  Scotts  and  Bulls,  many  of  whom  in  later 


464  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


years  were  governors.  In  1669  the  Quakers  practically  con- 
trolled the  political  situation,  and  in  1672  they  elected  to 
office  the  governor,  deputy  governor,  all  the  magistrates,  and 
completely  controlled  the  political  situation  in  Rhode 
Island.  The  Quakers  here  tried  to  carry  out  reforms,  that 
are  being  fought  for  by  commercial,  banking  and  pri- 
vate interests  to-day.  The  American  Peace  Society  is 
very  active  in  1913.  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  one  of 
America's  profound  scientists,  is  devoting  much  of  his  time 
to  arguments  against  the  barbarism  of  war;  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that,  in  1677,  when  the  Quakers  were  playing 
the  game  of  politics,  and  placing  their  men  in  office  in 
Rhode  Island,  their  desideratum  was  not  spoil,  office, 
graft,  influence  or  personal  aggrandizement:  but  the  oppor- 
tunity to  give  emphasis  to  their  peculiar  doctrines.  They 
used  the  political  machinery  of  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island 
for  that  purpose, — to  emphasize  the  fact  that  war  is  a  crime ; 
that  the  killing  of  men  in  battle  is  legalized  murder;  that  the 
slaughter  of  the  young  and  agile  men  is  a  menace  to  poster- 
ity and  the  virility  of  the  nation. 

The  World  Peace  Foundation'*'  or  the  Peace  Society  to- 
day has  not  stopped  war;  but  when  the  Quakers  captured 
Rhode  Island  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago  and  elected  all 
the  officers,  they  put  into  operation  for  the  first  time  since 

*In  connection  with  attempts  to  produce  peace,  the  efforts  of  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  have  endeared  him  not  only  to  the  thinking  portion 
of  the  American  people  but  to  the  world  at  large.  Mr.  Ginn,  the 
American  publisher  of  the  publications  of  the  World  Peace  Founda- 
tion of  Boston — the  efforts  of  Albert  Smiley  during  many  years  of  the 
Mohonk  Conference — are  all  suggestive  that  the  ideas  of  the  early 
Quakers  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago  were  anticipants  of  modern 
culture  and  ripe  intelligence. 


r 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  465 


Christianity  began,  a  doctrine  in  which  war  had  no  part. 
Non-resistance,  which  overwhelmed  Endicotr,  became  the 
law.  Christians  had  forgotten  that  war  was  opposed  to 
their  primal  principle.  It  was  Maximilian,  who,  in  the 
Diocletian  reign,  said  when  enrolled,  'T  cannot  fight  for 
any  earthly  consideration.  I  am  now  a  Christian;"  and 
Lactantius,  the  Latin,  wrote,  ''To  engage  in  war  cannot  be 
lawful  for  the  righteous  man,  whose  warfare  is  that  of 
righteousness  itself."  In  1670,  as  in  1913,  the  Quakers  re- 
fused to  fight;  first  because  they  were  Christians  and  it  was 
wrong;  secondly,  because  war  is  a  remnant  of  barbarism,  a 
wholesale  murder  at  the  instigation  of  a  few.  One  result  of 
this  policy  was  that  Rhode  Island  during  this  period  was 
singularly  free  from  trouble  with  the  Indians. 

One  of  the  important  New  England  settlements  of  Quak- 
ers was  that  of  Nantucket.  Thomas  Macy  of  Scituate  was 
the  tirst  Friend  to  settle  there  with  Edward  Starbuck,  Isaac 
Coleman  and,  doubtless,  James  Coffin,  a  son  of  Tristram 
Coffin,  who  became  the  first  governor,  from  whom  are  de- 
scended many  of  the  notable  Coffins  of  America  to-day,  as 
the  late  Charles  F.  Coffin  of  Lynn,  Charles  Albert  Coffin, 
'  the  distinguished  President  of  the  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, Mr.  Doak  of  Colgrove,  and  others,  all  descendants  of 
Sir  Tristram  Coffin  of  England.  Thomas  Macy  sought 
Nantucket  that  he  might  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  and 
escape  the  tyranny  of  the  clergy  and  those  in  authority.  The 
population  of  Nantucket  grew  rapidly  and  on  this  island,  in 
a  sense  isolated,  were  founded  some  of  the  most  conspicuous 
of  American  Colonial  Quaker  families:  Macy,  Gardner, 
Hussey,  Coffin,  Starbuck,  Holder,  Mitchell,  Swain,  Wing, 

Bunker,  Folger,  and  many  more. 
30 


466  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


Among  the  early  arrivals  were  Richard  Gardiner  and 
wife,  driven  from  Salem  for  attending  Quaker  meeting  in 
1673.  Stephen  Hussey  and  John  Swain  were  among  the 
early  Quakers  prior  to  the  building  of  a  meeting  house. 
Then  came  Thomas  Story,  Thomas  Chalkley  and  John 
Richardson,  ministers.  The  latter  was  brought  to  the  island 
by  Peleg  Slocum,  who  married  Mary  Holder,  the  third 
great  grandmother  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage.  John  Richardson 
held  a  series  of  meetings  in  the  home  of  Mary  Starbuck,  nee 
Coffin,  which  continued  some  time.  The  Nantucket  Monthly 
Meeting  was  established  on  the  16th  of  May,  1780. 

In  1743  Nantucket  was  a  flourishing  place.  About  this 
time  Daniel  Holder,  believed  to  be  a  great  grandson  of 
Christopher  Holder,  settled  here,  and  became  the  first  large 
ship-builder  of  the  colony  and  of  .America.  Edmund  Peck 
came  from  England  and  visited  the  Island  this  year.  He 
found  three  hundred  families,  three-fourths  of  them  Quakers. 
The  meeting  house  was  large  and  commodious,  with  a  capac- 
ity of  fifteen  hundred  '"'and  it  was  very  full  when  we  were 
there."  In  1755  Samuel  Fothergill  found  fifteen  hundred 
attending  meeting.  Whaling  was  then  a  prominent  feature 
of  the  business  life,  and  the  annual  catch  by  the  Nantucket 
Quakers  in  1743  realized  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

I'he  Newport  Yearly  Meeting  alone  had  an  attendance 
now  of  nearly  two  thousand  five  hundred.  The  story  of 
Quakerism  in  Nantucket  has  a  pathetic  interest ;  its  rise  and 
fall  was  in  every  sense  remarkable.  In  about  1800  the 
Society  was  at  the  flood-tide  of  its  development.  A  large 
meeting  house  erected  in  1730  stood  on  the  corner  of  Main 
and  Saratoga  Streets,  and  this  was  used  for  sixty  years, 


DBSK  OF  DAXIEL  HOLDER 
\antiwket,  1150 


-      -A.-. /J  ^-^^ 

■♦tf -r-M--  '"^  ,1.1. 


PAGE  FROM  DAMEL  HOLDER'S  BIBLE 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  467 


when  a  new  building  was  planned  on  Broad  Street,  and  the 
old  meeting  house  re-built  on  Main  Street. 

There  were  now  two  meetings  and  many  Quakers,  as  the 
Macys,  Rotches,  Rodmans,  Joys,  Holders,  Swifts,  How- 
lands,  Mitchells  and  Husseys,  had  become  well-to-do,  if  not 
wealthy  for  the  period,  founding  the  many  families  which 
now  figure  m  the  records  of  the  Colonial  families  of  the 
United  States.  Henry  Barnard  Worth  writes  of  this 
period: 

"The  men  and  women  sat,  the  elder  folk  facing  the 
younger,  from  their  rising  seats,  with  faces  grave  beneath 
the  stiff  straight  brim  or  dusky  bonnet.  On  the  highest 
seats,  where  the  low  partition  boards  sundered  the  men  and 
women,  there  alone  sat  they  whom  most  the  spirit  visited 
and  spake  through  them  and  gave  authority. 

"Yet  unknown  to  themselves  they  had  reached  the  pin- 
nacle of  their  prosperity,  and  soon  would  begin  the  decline 
which  would  be  steady  and  relentless,  until  they  should  dis- 
appear from  the  Island.  They  heeded  not  the  clouds  that 
warned  them  of  coming  storms,  but  condemning  all  changes 
as  dangerous,  they  sailed  on  in  the  cause  given  them  two 
Centuries  before  by  George  Fox,  until  stranded,  shattered, 
and  wrecked  on  one  rock  after  another,  they  have  almost 
vanished  from  the  sea,  and  rival  sects  are  now  in  undisputed 
dominion  on  the  island." 

The  colony  grew  rapidly  in  wealth,  its  fisheries  became 
of  national  importance ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  Quak- 
ers began  to  lose  ground.  The  gradual  development  of  the 
vast  country  attracted  many,  and  the  Macys,  Starbucks, 
Rotches,  CofRns,  Howlands,  Slocums,  Holders  and  others 
began  the  great  movements  which  carried  these  Nantucket 


468  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


families  all  over  the  country  to  the  regions  safe  from  the 
Indians.  They  went  to  Lynn,  Boston,  Maine,  New  York 
and  the  far  West.  In  1812  the  French  spoliations  ruined 
many  Quakers  and  caused  them  to  migrate,  having  lost  all 
their  vessels  and  property.  The  regulations  of  the  meetings 
were  very  severe,  and  were  insisted  on  so  rigorously  that 
many  members  were  lost  from  this  cause.  This  was  partic- 
ularly true  of  disownments.  A  Friend  wrote :  "It  has  been  my 
lot  to  see  many  cases  of  disownment  of  members  from  which 
my  own  feelings  revolted,  and  in  which  the  benevolent  feel- 
ings of  valuable  Friends  appeared  to  have  been  violated  to 
uphold  the  discipline.  I  have  seen  men  of  natural  kindness 
and  tendencies  become  hard  hearted  and  severe.  I  have  seen 
justice  turned  back  and  mercy  laid  aside." 

The  causes  were  often  more  than  trivial,  and  a  perusal  of 
an  old  record  possessed  by  the  author  gives  rise  to  wonder- 
ment that  anyone  was  left.  Henry  Barnard  was  disowned 
for  going  to  sea  in  an  armed  vessel.  A  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  Friends  was  opposition  to  war.  Members  were 
disowned  for  refusing  to  say  ''thou,"  for  wearing  buckles, 
for  marrying  out  of  the  Society,  for  attending  a  place  where 
there  was  music,  for  becoming  a  Mason,  for  "deviating  in 
dress  and  address  from  the  plainness  of  our  profession."  "H. 
B.  G.  had  attended  a  marriage  performed  by  a  minister 
where  there  was  music."  "S.  P.  had  sailed  in  a  privateer." 
"W.  G.  H.  had  joined  a  company  at  a  hall  and  was  con- 
cerned in  a  lottery."  "C.  G.  Coffin  married  a  woman  not  a 
member."  "L.  C.  for  frequenting  a  Methodist  Society." 
"E.  M.  disowned  for  not  paying  his  debts."  A  physician 
was  disowned  for  certifying  that  a  soldier  was  entitled  to  a 
pension.     Quakers  could  attend  a  Gentile  wedding  at 


r 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  469 


Nantucket,  but  during  the  act  of  marriage  they  could  not 
remain  in  the  room;  if  they  did  they  were  disowned,  so, 
many  looked  in  at  the  windows.  At  one  wedding  thirty 
persons  left  the  room,  but  returned  immediately  after  the 
ceremony.  So  strict  an  accounting,  with  no  method  of  re- 
plenishing the  Society,  began  to  tell  on  it.  Most  of  the  dis- 
ownments  resulted  from  men  or  women  marrying  outside 
of  the  Society,  an  escape  from  a  pernicious  custom  that 
would  in  time  have  caused  the  deterioration  of  the  strongest 
people,  or  left  its  irrevocable  physical  stamp  on  them,  as 
with  the  Jews. 

As  the  Quakers  increased  in  the  colony,  they  began  to  dif- 
fer slightly,  and  three  types  were  soon  recognized, — Nan- 
tucket, Wilburite  and  Gurneyite,  a  series  of  divisions  that 
were  ominous  warnings  to  the  Island  Society.  The  bat- 
tles of  Hicks,  Gurney  and  Wilbur  swept  the  sea-girt  island 
with  all  the  earnestness  capable  among  Friends,  and  the 
juggernaut  of  disownment  was  eternally  in  operation.  As 
fast  as  Friends  in  Nantucket  were  suspected  of  Hicksite 
leanings,  they  were  charged  with  "disorderly  conduct"  and 
disowned. 

Under  this,  Gilbert  Coffin,  Sylvanus  Macy,  Roland  Hus- 
sey,  Obed  Barney,  Daniel  Mitchell,  W.  B.  Coffin,  Charles 
Pitman,  Gideon  Swain,  Matthew  Myrick,  William  Watson, 
Thomas  Macy,  Peter  and  Obed  Macy  and  their  wives  were 
disowned.  The  disowned  members  established  a  Hicksite 
meeting  on  Main  Street,  which  led  a  desultory  existence,  and 
finally  failed,  the  members  joining  the  Unitarian  Church, 
which  in  later  years  was  so  rich  that  the  edifice  was  built 
of  mahogany. 

The  Friends  had  hardly  recovered  from  the  Hicksite  in- 


470  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


vasion  when  they  found  themselves  engaged  in  a  war  of 
words  with  the  Joseph  John  Gurney  party,  which  lasted 
thirty  years.  The  majority  of  Friends  in  Nantucket  joined 
the  Wilburites;  but  the  matter  was  at  last  brought  before 
the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  at  Newport  in  1845  for 
final  adjudication.  To  anyone  who  did  not  understand  the 
system  upon  which  the  Quakers  conducted  their  meetings,  it 
might  have  been  assumed  that  it  was  a  waste  of  time  for  the 
Wilburites  to  appeal  to  this  highest  ecclesiastical  court,  as  it 
was  well  known  that  the  Gurneyites  were  in  the  majority. 
The  Friends  do  not  vote  at  a  meeting.  A  clerk  is  appointed, 
who  is  in  a  sense  absolute  in  power.  When  a  question 
comes  up,  he  asks  for  opinions,  and  when  all  have  been 
heard  he  decides  as  to  the  sense  of  the  meeting,  and  makes  a 
minute  or  record  of  it.  There  is  no  recall  to  this,  no  appeal 
to  a  higher  court.  The  clerk  is  not  required  to  pay  any  atten- 
tion to  the  majority.  He  weighs  the  question  as  he  sees  fit, 
takes  into  account  the  age,  education,  the  intelligence  or 
spiritual  reputations  of  the  speakers ;  in  a  word,  endeavors  to 
give  the  judicial  sense  of  the  meeting  pro' ox  con;  and  it 
sometimes  happens  that  a  small  minority  will  win  over  a 
large  majority.  This  being  the  case,  a  party  desiring  to  win 
endeavors  to  secure  the  appointment  of  a  clerk  holding  their 
general  views,  as  there  is  no  recall,  nor  could  the  defeated 
party  go  behind  the  decision  of  the  clerk,  which,  it  may  be 
said,  is  generally  just,  judicial  and  fair. 

When  the  Wilburites  reached  Newport  they  bent  all  their 
endeavors  to  secure  the  appointment  of  Thomas  B.  Gould  of 
Newport  as  clerk;  but  the  clerk  of  the  previous  year,  a 
Gurneyite,  according  to  the  rule,  was  obliged  to  preside  at 
the  new  meeting.    He  found  that  it  was  the  "Sense  of  the 


JOSEPH  J0N\  arifxijy 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  471 


meeting,"  that  he  "should  continue  for  another  year,"  so  he 
made  a  minute  to  that  effect ;  and  soon  found  that  it  was  the 
"sense  of  the  meeting"  that  the  Wilburites  were  to  receive 
no  encouragement.  According  to  the  rules,  if  the  contest- 
ants fail  to  secure  the  election  of  their  choice  for  clerk,  they 
must  withdraw, — this  being  the  Quaker  way  of  settling  a 
division.  Hence  the  Wilburites  withdrew  and  organized 
the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting.  The  division  was  un- 
fortunate in  many  ways,  as  the  Friends  fought  their  affairs 
out  in  the  Courts.  The  Wilburites  captured  the  Swansea 
Monthly  Meeting  building  at  Fall  River.  Both  parties 
elected  overseers,  and  both  claimed  it,  but  the  Supreme 
Court  gave  it  to  the  Gurneyites.  In  the  course  of  this  trial, 
the  learned  Judge  Shaw  said  that  "the  unhappy  division  be- 
tween the  Wilburites  and  the  Gurneyites  rose  from  an  ap- 
prehension of  the  former  that  the  latter  were  disseminating 
false  doctrines,  of  which,"  he  said,  "there  was  no  evidence." 

Worth,  the  historian  of  Nantucket,  goes  so  far  as  to  say 
that  "A  Friend  told  me  the  real  cause  came  from  the  ill  will 
which  John  Wilbur  entertained  towards  Gurney,  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  when  Wilbur  visited  England  he  was  not  al- 
lowed to  smoke  in  Gurney's  house."  Some  very  comical 
incidents  occurred  as  the  result  of  this  schism.  When  a 
Wilburite,  Thomas  B.  Gould,  visited  Nantucket  and  rose  to 
speak  in  meeting,  Cromwell  Barnard,  an  elderly  Gurneyite 
Friend  arose  and  said,  "Friend  thee  can  sit  down."  Up  rose 
Peleg  Mitchell,  a  staunch  Wilburite,  who  said  in  stentorian 
tones,  "Friend  thee  can  go  on,"  and  on  the  Friend  went  amid 
the  tears  of  the  women  and  the  agitation  of  all. 

In  1845  a  complete  and  irrevocable  division  took  place  in 
Nantucket,  and  the  Gurney  party,  acting  in  accord  with  the 


472  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


Sandwich  Monthly  Meeting,  called  themselves  the  Nan- 
tucket Monthly  Meeting  of  Friends.  They  secured  the 
Abner  Coffin  house  at  first,  and  later  rented  the  Hicksite 
meeting  house.  The  Court  had  decided  that  the  Wilbur- 
ites  were  the  'separatists,'  hence  the  Gurneyites  had  a  judic- 
ial claim  to  all  property,  and  in  Nantucket  the  singular  and 
melancholy  spectacle  was  witnessed  of  the  minority  ruling, 
as  the  Gurneyites  had  but  eighty-eight  members,  and  the 
Wilbur  body  numbered  one  hundred  and  forty,  seventy- 
nine  or  eighty  wavering.  Nantucket  was  the  only  meeting 
in  New  England  where  the  Gurneyites  or  liberals  did  not 
win. 

The  Gurney  Meeting  now  proceeded  to  exercise  its  powers 
by  disowning  the  separatists,  and  about  seventy-five  repre- 
sentatives of  the  leading  families  were  virtually  excommuni- 
cated, among  them  the  following  historic  names,  whose  de- 
scendants have  scattered  all  over  the  United  States :  Fred- 
erick Arthur,  Mary  Arthur,  James  Austin,  John  Boadle, 
Hezekiah  Barnard,  Mary  Barnard,  Susan  Barnard,  Alex- 
ander G.  Coffin,  Rachel  Hussey,  David  G.  Hussey,  Eliza- 
beth Hussey,  Benjamin  Hussey,  Gorham  Hussey,  Lydia  M. 
Hussey,  Hepsibeth  C.  Hussey,  Nancy  Hussey,  John  L.  Cof- 
fin, Joseph  G.  Coleman,  Phebe  Coffin,  Rebecca  Coffin,  Susan 
Coffin,  John  G.  Coffin,  Elizabeth  Coffin,  John  Franklin  Cof- 
fin, Eliza  Coleman,  Anna  Clark,  James  B.  Coleman,  Lydia 
Coleman,  Elizabeth  Clark,  Sally  Easton,  Eliza  Ann  Easton, 
John  Folger,  Lydia  Folger,  Hannah  Maria  Gardner,  Prince 
Gardner,  Mary  Gardner,  Benjamin  Gardner,  Rachel  Gard- 
ner, Elizabeth  Graham,  Lydia  G.  Hussey,  Lydia  Monroe, 
Alice  Mitchell,  Moses  Mitchell,  David  Mitchell,  Peleg 
Mitchell,  Mary  S.  Mitchell,  Susan  Mitchell,  Mary  Macy, 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  473 


Deborah  Paddack,  Eunice  Paddack,  Laban  Paddack,  Mary 
Paddack,  John  Paddack,  Sarah  Paddack,  Micajah  Swain, 
Hezekiah  Swain,  Lydia  Swain,  Obed  B.  Swain,  Eunice 
Swain,  Margaret  Swain,  Joseph  B.  Swain,  Richard  G. 
Swain. 

This  extraordinary  and  deadly  contest,  fatal  as  far  as  the 
effect  upon  the  Society  at  large,  was  waged  for  years.  It 
even  affected  the  dead,  as  by  the  Court's  decision  the  Wil- 
burites  lost  their  rights  in  the  burial  ground.  By  an  agree- 
ment they  were  at  last  allowed  to  use  the  south  end  of  the 
lot;  and  to-day  in  this  court  of  the  dead,  the  melancholy 
spectacle  is  seen  of  rows  of  stones  in  the  north  end,  monu- 
ments of  the  Gurneyites  who  now  believed  in  visible  memor- 
ials of  the  dead,  while  on  the  south  end  a  marked  and 
significant  absence  of  any  reminder,  told  the  graphic  story  of 
the  plain  Wilburite  dead,  who  believed  that  grave  stones 
were  vanities  of  a  sinful  world.  In  the  Lynn  burial  ground 
a  somewhat  similar  division  may  be  seen  over  a  cause  which 
may  also  be  classed  as  a  "non-essential." 

The  Gurney  faction  gradually  faded  away  in  Nantucket 
until  the  year  1 867  when  it  was  a  memory,  and  the  property 
was  handed  over  to  the  New  Bedford  Monthly  Meeting,  a 
'  pathetic  consummation  of  fruitless  endeavor.  The  Wilbur- 
ites,  at  the  separation  of  1845,  denounced  the  Gurneyites  as 
"spurious"  and  the  meeting  proceeded  to  disown  all  the 
Gurneyites,  among  whom  were  Elizabeth  Austin,  Cromwell 
Barnard,  Susanna  Coleman,  Deborah  Coffin,  Lydia  Coffin, 
Lydia  Fisher,  Hannah  Gardner,  Robert  B.  Hussey,  Hannah 
Hussey,  Judith  Hussey,  Cyrus  Hussey,  Lydia  Hussey,  Ben- 
jamin Mitchell,  William  Mitchell,  Miriam  Starbuck, 
Abigail  Allen,  Matthew  Barney,  Lydia  Bunker,  Robert  Cof- 


474  THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS 


fin,  Herman  Crocker,  George  Easton,  William  Hosier, 
Lyda  Hosier,  Obed  Fitch,  Kimball  Starbuck,  Rachel  Swain, 
Abram  R.  Wing  and  Lydia  Worth.  This  meeting  was 
ultra-conservative  compounded,  and  men  and  women  were 
disowned  for  the  slightest  evasion  of  doctrines.  A  member 
who  allowed  a  musical  instrument  in  the  house  was  dis- 
owned, also  several  for  neglecting  meetings,  marrying  out  of 
the  meetings,  for  attending  meetings  of  another  society.  The 
case  of  Narcissa  B.  Coffin  illustrates  the  severe  rule  of  the 
Wilburites.  In  1858  this  minute  appears:  "10  mo.,  24, 
1858.  This  meeting  after  a  time  of  weighty  deliberation 
has  united  with  the  women  in  approving  the  gift  and  public 
appearance  in  the  ministry  of  Narcissa  B.  Coffin." 

In  1864  she  was  charged  with  "going  before  her  guide." 
In  other  words,  she  had  the  temerity  to  think  of  her  sermon 
before  she  entered  the  meeting;  that  is,  had  prepared  her- 
self.  The  specific  charge  on  the  Nantucket  records  is : 

"7  mo.,  28,  1864.  She  was  deposed  and  silenced  by  the 
Nantucket  Meeting  'for  not  keeping  on  the  watch  and  abid- 
ing in  a  state  of  humility  and  abasedness  of  self.'  "  Thus, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  New  England  women 
preachers  was  silenced  for  twenty-five  years,  being  restored 
in  Lynn  in  1889  after  all  those  who  silenced  her  were  dead. 

Aside  from  the  Hicksite,  Wilburite  and  Gurneyite 
factions  there  were  further  potentialities  and  fatalities 
which  weakened  the  sect,  as  the  Job  Otis  and  Joseph  Hoag 
controversy,  a  non-essential  that  hastened  the  end  in  Nan- 
tucket. 

In  1868  the  Meeting  in  Nantucket  had  dwindled  down  to 
such  a  small  number  that  the  separate  meeting  was  given  up, 
and  the  men  and  women  held  their  meetings  together.  In 


THE  NANTUCKET  QUAKERS  475 


1894  but  one  Wilburite  was  left  in  Nantucket.  The  meet- 
ing house  was  sold  to  the  Nantucket  Historical  Society ;  and 
the  valuable  historical  records  placed  in  the  hands  of  Pro- 
fessor James  W.  Oliver  of  Lynn,  where  ten  members  of  the 
meeting  had  moved  and  where  scores  of  the  descendants  of 
Daniel  Holder  now  lived,  the  immediate  line  being  still 
Quakers,  represented  by  Aaron  Holder,  the  author's  grand- 
father. 

The  Quakers  of  Nantucket  were  an  extraordinary  people. 
They  were  the  founders  and  descendants  of  some  of  the  most 
notable  American  Colonial  families,  but  in  the  years  be- 
tween 1700  and  1900,  or  two  hundred  years,  they  complete- 
ly disappeared  from  the  island,  the  larger  portion  having 
migrated  to  the  south  and  west  to  found  the  sturdy  families 
who  still  serve  under  the  militant  but  liberalized  banner  of 
George  Fox  all  over  the  American  continent.  A  more  ex- 
traordinary example  of  fatal  austere  efforts  in  the  direction 
of  complete  moral  perfection  has  never  been  seen.  The 
slightest  wavering  was  met  with  disownment.  The  unruly 
member,  at  the  first  suggestion  of  trouble,  was  amputated, 
lest  he  or  she  should  infect  the  main  body  with  the  vanities 
of  the  world.  Unquestionably  those  who  remained  or  could 
remain  were  the  elect,  were  so  far  as  known  morally  perfect; 
but  the  result  would  suggest  that  the  S5^stem  was,  in  Nan- 
tucket at  least,  too  rigorous  for  human  nature  in  its  present 
stage  of  development. 

The  jail  in  this  Quaker  community  was  rarely  used,  and 
as  late  as  1870,  I  was  told  that  it  was  falling  into  disuse, 
and  that,  when  a  prisoner  was  thrown  into  durance  vile,  he 
was  placed  on  his  honor  not  to  escape. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION. 

The  ship  "Woodhouse,"  whose  extraordinary  log  has  been 
given  in  a  previous  chapter,  after  landing  Christopher  Hold- 
er and  John  Copeland  in  New  England,  proceeded  to  New 
Amsterdam  with  the  rest  of  the  Quaker  ministers,  who  pro- 
posed to  start  the  campaign  in  a  colony  which  virtually 
guaranteed  religious  liberty.  The  policy  of  the  Dutch  had 
been  pre-eminently  for  toleration;  and  this  had  attracted, 
especially  under  the  rule  of  Governor  Stuyvesant,  a  large 
migration  of  Huguenots  from  France,  of  whom  later.  Bishop 
Provost,  the  first  Episcopal  Bishop  of  New  York,  was  a 
descendant  of  the  family  of  that  name.  There  was  a  great 
invasion  of  Waldenses  from  Piedmont,  together  with  Eng- 
lish, Scotch,  Presbyterians,  Anabaptists,  Moravians  and 
many  more,  all  attracted  by  the  promise  of  religious  free- 
dom, which  had  been  practically  guaranteed  by  the  Amster- 
dam Chamber  of  the  West  India  Company  in  an  address  to 
Governor  Stuyvesant.  In  this  ponderous  paper,  we  read, 
"The  consciences  of  men,"  they  say,  ''ought  to  be  free  and 
unshackled,  so  long  as  they  continue  moderate,  peaceable,  in- 
offensive and  not  hostile  to  government.  Such  have  been 
the  maxims  of  prudence  and  toleration  by  which  the  magis- 
trates of  this  city  have  been  governed ;  and  the  consequences 
have  been  that  the  oppressed  and  persecuted  from  every 
country  have  found  among  us  an  asylum  from  distress. 
Follow  in  the  same  steps,  and  you  will  be  blest." 

The  "W^oodhouse"  party,  composed  of  Richard  Hodgson, 


r 


STEPHEX  GRELLET 


WILLIAM  ROTCH 
\eic  Bedford 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  477 


Richard  Doudney,  Mary  Weathcrhead,  Dorothy  Waugh 
and  Sarah  Gibbons,  was  the  initial  Quaker  movement  in  the 
Dutch  colony.  The  Dutch  were  supposed  to  be  extremely 
friendly  to  these  seekers  after  religious  liberty,  and  there  had 
been  many  migrations  from  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  under  the 
leadership  of  Lady  Moody,  who  reached  Lynn  from  Eng- 
land in  1640,  and  bought  a  large  estate,  now  known  as 
Swampscott,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  locations  on  the  At- 
lantic coast.  Driven  out  by  the  bigotry  of  the  Puritans, 
Lady  Moody  moved  to  Gravesend,  and  took  many  Lynn 
families  with  her,  all  of  whom,  according  to  Winthrop,  were 
infected  by  the  teachings  of  the  Anabaptists. 

About  forty  Lynn  families  had  preceded  Lady  Moody 
and  had  settled  about  Flushing,  Jamaica,  Oyster  Bay  and 
other  towns.  As  the  movement  was  made  for  religious  free- 
dom, it  became  in  later  years  famous  as  a  resort  for  Quakers. 

The  "Woodhouse"  Quakers  landed  at  New  Amsterdam. 
Captain  Fowler  at  once  paid  his  respects  to  Governor  Stuy- 
vesant,  and  reported  him  "a  man  moderate  both  in  words 
and  action."  But  the  Dutch  Governor  had  his  limitations, 
one  of  which  was  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  public  ap- 
pearance of  women.  This  was  demonstrated  when  Dorothy 
Waugh  and  Mary  Weatherhead  attempted  to  give  a  street 
meeting  soon  after  their  arrival.  No  time  was  wasted  on 
the  Quakers;  they  were  arrested  and  thrown  into  jail:  a 
very  filthy  one,  if  the  accounts  can  be  believed.  In  the 
Ecclesiastical  records  of  New  York  appears  the  following 
interesting  account  of  the  first  reception  of  Quakers:  "On 
August  6th  (or  12th)  a  ship  came  from  the  sea  to  this 
place,  having  no  flag  flying  from  the  topmast,  nor  from  any 
other  part  of  the  ship    .    .    .    They  fired  no  salute  before 


478  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


the  fort.  When  the  master  of  the  ship  came  on  shore  and 
appeared  before  the  Director-General,  he  rendered  him  no 
respect,  but  stood  with  his  hat  firm  on  his  head,  as  if  a 
coat!  At  last  information  was  gained  that  it  was  a  ship 
with  Quakers  on  board. 

"We  suppose  they  went  to  Rhode  Island,  for  that  is  the 
receptacle  of  all  sorts  of  riff-raif  people  and  is  nothing  else 
than  the  sewer  of  New  England.  They  left  behind  two 
strong  young  women.  As  soon  as  the  ship  had  departed, 
these  (women)  began  to  quake  and  go  into  a  frenzy,  and 
cry  out  loudly  in  the  middle  of  the  street  that  men  should 
repent,  for  the  day  of  judgment  was  at  hand.  Our  people, 
not  knowing  what  was  the  matter,  ran  to  and  fro  while  one 
cried  'fire'  and  another  something  else.  The  Fiscal  seized 
them  both  by  the  head  and  led  them  to  prison." 

The  Quakers  now  discovered  that  toleration  had  no  sig- 
nificance in  the  Dutch  colony,  and  that  the  Baptists  and 
others  had  been  violently  abused.  Richard  Hodgson  was 
arrested  for  preaching  in  Flushing,  dragged  to  New  York 
behind  a  cart  and  before  Stuyvesant,  and  as  an  example 
of  what  the  rest  might  expect,  given  a  sentence  of  two  years, 
hard  labor.  A  few  days  later  he  was  seen  on  the  street 
chained  to  a  wheelbarrow.  Being  innocent  he  refused  to 
work,  when  he  was  stripped  and  beaten  by  a  negro  until 
he  fell  to  the  ground,  and  this  was  repeated.  Then  he  was 
hung  up  to  the  ceiling  by  the  hands,  while  a  log  of  wood 
was  attached  to  his  feet  to  stretch  him  out.  This  was 
an  illustration  of  the  New  York  Inquisition  which  was  a 
very  good  imitation  of  the  original.  This  Quaker  refused 
everything  but  liberty,  as  he  was  innocent;  and  doubtless 
he  would  have  been  killed  by  the  treatment  of  Stuyvesant, 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  479 

had  not  the  Governor's  sister,  Mrs.  Bayard,  secured  his 
release.  Everyone  who  entertained  the  Quakers  was 
tabooed,  and  the  Governor  now  carried  the  war  into  Long 
Island,  where  Lady  Moody,  who  had  become  a  Quaker, 
was  using  her  house  as  a  meeting,  and  was  surrounded  by 
migrant  Lynn  Quakers. 

Henry  Townsend  was  found  guilty  of  breaking  the  Con- 
venticle Act,  and  members  of  the  Tilton,  Hart,  Farrington, 
Thorn,  Feak,  Browne,  Underbill  and  other  families  were 
persecuted  here,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Flushing  of  all  classes  protested  to  the  Governor,  and  de- 
nounced the  outrages.   John  Fisk  says : 

"The  names  of  thirty-one  valiant  men  are  signed  to  this 
document.  I  do  not  know  whether  Flushing  has  ever  raised 
a  fitting  monument  to  their  memory.  If  I  could  have  my 
way  I  would  have  the  protest  carved  on  a  stately  obelisk, 
with  the  name  of  Edward  Hart,  town  clerk,  and  the  thirty 
other  Dutch  and  English  names  appended,  and  would  have 
it  set  up  where  all  might  read  it  for  the  glory  of  the  town 
that  had  such  men  for  its  founders." 

As  elsewhere,  persecution  resulted  in  the  growth  and 
strengthening  of  Quakerism.  The  Quakers  increased  rap- 
idly in  Long  Island,  and  were  visited  by  Christopher  Holder 
and  others  of  the  "Woodhouse"  party,  who  gathered  into 
the  Quaker  fold  many  from  other  denominations.  Gover- 
nor Stuyvesant  was  ultimately  silenced  by  public  opinion, 
and  Long  Island  particularly  became  famous  as  a  hotbed 
of  Quakerism,  Flushing,  Jamaica  and  Oyster  Bay  being 
settled  by  Friends.  Shelter  Island  also  was  a  famous  re- 
gion settled  by  the  Quakers,  Thomas  Rous,  Constant  and 
Nathaniel  Sylvester  and  Thomas  Middleton,  who  opened 


48o  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


their  hearts  and  homes  to  the  suffering  Friends.  At  Shelter 
Island  is  found  one  of  the  very  few  monuments  to  the  early 
Quakers.  In  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genealogi- 
cal Register  I  found  the  following  description  of  this  tomb, 
erected  by  Professor  Horsford  of  Harvard: 

(On  the  Horizontal  Tablet  of  the  Table  Tomb:) 

To  Nathaniel  Sylvester. 
First  Resident  Proprietor  of  the  Manor  of  Shelter  Island 
under  grant  of  Charles  Second  A.  D.  1666  (Arius).  An 
Englishman,  Intrepid,  Loyal  to  Duty,  Faithful  to  Friend- 
ship, the  Soul  of  Integrity  and  Honor,  Hospitable  to 
Worth  and  Culture,  sheltering  ever  the  persecuted  for  con- 
science sake.  The  daughters  of  Mary  and  Phoebe  Gardiner 
Horsford,  Descendants  of  Patience,  daughter  of  Nathaniel 
Sylvester  and  wife  of  the  Huguenot  Benjamin  L'Homme- 
dieu,  in  Reverence  and  Affection  for  the  good  name  of  their 
ancestor  in  1884  set  up  these  stones  for  a  Memorial. 
1610  1680. 

Under  the  Table: 

A  list  of  names  of  Descendants  of  Anne  Brinley,  of  the 
female  side. 

Succession  of  Proprietors.  The  Manhansett  Tribe.  The 
King.  The  Earl  of  Sterling,  James  Farrett,  Stephen  Good- 
year, Nathaniel  Sylvester,  Giles  Sylvester,  Brinley  Sylves- 
ter, Thomas  Deering,  Sylvester  Deering,  Mary  Catherine 
L'Hommedieu,  Samuel  Smith  Gardner,  Eben  Norton  Hors- 
ford. 

On  the  South  Steps  are  engraved  the  following  names 
of  friends  of  Nathaniel  Sylvester  who  had  become  dis- 
tinguished in  various  ways,  as  follows: 


r 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  481 


Of  the  Sufferings  for  conscience  sake  of  friends  of 
Nathaniel  Sylvester,  most  of  whom  sought  shelter  here,  in- 
cluding 

George  Fox, 
Foimder  of  the  Society  of  Quakers 
and  his  Follows, 
Mary  Dyer,  William  Leddra, 

William  Robinson,        Marmaduke  Stephenson, 
executed  on  Boston  Common. 

On  East  Steps : 

Lawrence  and  Cassandra  Southwick  Despoiled,  im- 
prisoned, starved,  whipped,  banished.  Who  fled  here  to  die. 

On  the  North  Steps : 

David  Gould,  bound  to  gun  carriage  and  lashed.  Ed- 
ward Wharton,  "The  much  Scourged."  Christopher  Holder, 
"The  Mutilated."  Humphrey  Norton,  "The  Branded." 
John  Rous,  "The  Maimed."  Giles  Sylvester,  "The  Cham- 
pion." Ralph  Goldsmith,  "The  Shipmaster."  Samuel 
Shattuck,  of  the  "King's  Message."  (These  stones  are  a 
Testimony.) 

,  One  of  the  well-known  members  of  the  Society  in  Flush- 
ing was  John  Bowne,  whose  old  house  still  stands.  I  vis- 
ited it  a  few  years  ago,  and  saw  the  elm  under  which  it  is 
supposed  George  Fox  and  Christopher  Holder  preached.  The 
Bowne  house  was,  doubtless,  the  first  meeting  house  in 
Flushing.  Bowne  was  soon  arrested  as  a  "conventicle," 
and  was  actually  banished  to  Holland  by  Stuyvesant,  but 
was  released  by  the  West  India  Company  and  sent  back. 
One  of  the  first  men  he  met  in  the  streets  was  Stuyvesant, 
31 


482  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


who  "seemed  much  abashed  by  what  he  had  done;"  but  he 
showed  that  he  was  a  man  by  saying,  "I  am  glad  to  see 
you  safe  at  home."  John  Bowne  replied,  "I  hope  thou  will 
never  harm  any  more  Friends." 

The  result  of  Bowne' s  persecution  brought  from  the  West 
India  Company  a  most  decided  rebuke  to  Stuyvesant,  and 
a  promise  of  toleration.  The  following  year  the  English 
captured  the  colony  from  the  Dutch,  and  in  the  agreement 
were  the  words — "liberty  of  conscience  in  divine  worship 
and  church  discipline."  This  was  in  1664  and  the  Qua- 
kers had  since  1657  suffered  much.  In  1673  the  Dutch 
again  conquered  the  colony,  losing  it  again  in  1674.  During 
all  this  period  the  Quakers  increased,  but  underwent  many 
trials,  as  they  refused  to  take  sides  or  fight;  consequently, 
their  motives  were  not  always  understood. 

John  Burnyeat  visited  New  York  in  1671  and  later 
George  Fox,  who  in  1672,  with  Christopher  Holder  and 
James  Lancaster,  visited  Rye,  Gravesend,  Flushing,  and 
various  towns  in  what  is  now  Connecticut.  Later  still  Sam- 
uel Bownas  visited  this  region,  preaching  in  Hempstead. 
He  was  arrested  at  Flushing,  bail  being  fixed  at  ten  thou- 
sand dollars.  At  this  Bownas  said,  "If  you  make  the  bail 
three  pence,  I  will  not  give  it;"  nor  did  he,  the  jury  at  last 
releasing  him,  though  the  Judge  swore  to  send  him  to  Eng- 
land "chained  to  the  deck  of  a  man  of  war." 

In  1699  New  York  had  a  small  meeting;  the  Quakers 
were  rapidly  increasing,  but  were  often  annoyed  and  ill- 
treated.  Thomas  Chalkley,  Edmund  Peckover,  William 
Rickett  and  others  visited  New  York,  and  slowly  but  surely, 
the  Society  increased;  now  suffering  drawbacks,  now  surg- 
ing ahead,  establishing  the  principles  of  the  Friends  firmly 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  483 


and  forming  the  base  for  the  great  interest  in  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries.  The  highest  point  attained  by  the 
Friends  in  New  York  was  in  the  nineteenth  century,  be- 
tween 1825  and  1875.  The  Society  was  strong  numerically, 
made  up  of  the  descendants  of  the  old  pioneers;  and  was 
an  unacknowledged  aristocracy  of  men  and  women  of  high 
cultivation  and  education  that  left  a  strong  and  enduring 
impression  on  the  city  and  community,  as  there  are  very 
few  old  aristocratic  families  of  New  York  that  did  not 
inter-marry  with  the  great  and  rich  Quaker  families,  which 
in  cultivation  and  worth  have  been  leaders.  In  1850  the 
population  of  New  York  was  ninety  thousand,  and  the 
Friends  meeting  numbered  eighteen  hundred  and  twenty- 
six,  living  in  the  city  proper. 

The  following  Quaker  names  had  a  definite  influence  in 
all  affairs: — Wood,  Bowne,  Murray,  Eddy,  Pearsall,  Col- 
lins, Lawrence,  Underbill,  Seaman,  Franklin,  Day,  Mott, 
Tatum  and  many  more,  well  known  between  1800  and  1825. 
Robert  Bowne  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  original 
Thomas  who  was  banished  to  Holland.  It  was  Robert  who 
gave  a  certain  boy  named  John  Jacob  Astor  his  first  position 
to  "do  chores,"  and  "beat  skins."  Astor  must  have  shown 
•his  ability  early,  as  he  received  a  dollar  a  day  as  a  boy. 
Mr.  William  Waldorf  Astor  has  a  silver  watch  given  the 
"boy"  by  Robert  Bowne  in  1785.  On  the  back  is  the  in- 
scription, "Presented  to  J.  J.  Astor  by  R.  Bowne,  1785." 
The  Bownes  became  a  wealthy  family;  a  branch  has  set- 
tled in  Oregon.  Walter  Bowne  was  one  of  the  early  mayors 
of  New  York.  Robert  Murray  was  a  famous  New  York 
Quaker.  One  of  his  sons  was  Lindley  Murray,  the  author 
of  the  English  Grammar.   Murray  Hill  was  named  for  this 


484  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


family.  What  is  known  as  the  "Murray  Fund"  of  forty- 
one  thousand  dollars,  added  to  by  William  N.  Mott  and 
David  Sands,  and  now  amounting  to  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
was  originated  by  Lindley  Murray. 

All  these  Friends  were  of  the  rigorous  type.  They  kept 
to  the  old  ways  with  a  persistency  that  undoubtedly  drove 
many  a  youth  from  the  Society.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  according  to  William  Wood,  men  often 
wore  their  hats  at  the  dinner  table,  and  Emma  Mitchell 
of  Nantucket  stated  that  she  remembered  seeing  her  hus- 
band's father  without  his  hat  but  once.  William  Wood, 
in  his  delightful  paper  entitled,  "Friends  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  says,  "Another  old  Friend,  Thomas  Hawk- 
hurst,  once  entered  a  room  where  some  Friends  were  dining, 
exclaimed,  throwing  up  his  hands,  'O  sorrowful,  sorrow- 
ful, a  whole  table  full  of  men  with  their  hats  off.'  My 
vincle,  John  Wood,  who  was  something  of  a  wag,  said  he 
believed  that  Thomas  Hawkhurst  must  have  been  born 
with  his  hat  on." 

One  of  the  first  meeting  houses  in  New  York,  was  built 
in  1704,  in  Crown  Street,  or  Little  Green,  later  Liberty 
Street,  where  the  Thorburns,  Corses,  Woods,  Tabors, 
Thornes,  Franklins,  Leggetts,  Pearsalls,  Hicks,  and  Willets 
attended.  Most  of  the  New  York  Quakers  lived  in  a  fashion 
that  was  considered  luxurious  by  some,  and  Willett  Hicks 
was  called  the  "Quaker  Bishop"  on  account  of  his  aristo- 
cratic tendencies,  his  carriage  and  foot-man.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  eloquent  of  the  Quaker  preachers  of  his  time. 

In  1802  there  was  presumably  a  Friends  meeting  house 
on  Liberty  Street,  though  it  may  have  been  the  one  men- 
tioned above.    It  was  surrounded  by  a  burial  ground.  In 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  485 


1825  the  Friends  purchased  property  on  Houston  Street, 
east  of  the  Bowery,  and  the  burial  ground  was  moved.  In 
1849  the  city  crowded  it  out  and  it  was  removed  to  Jericho, 
Long  Island.  The  Friends  did  not  believe  in  monuments 
or  even  head  stones,  and  a  book  of  records  alone  told  the 
story.  In  1775  there  was  a  meeting  house  on  Queen  Street, 
re-named  Pearl,  near  Franklin  Square,  now  lost  in  the 
shadow  of  giant  buildings.  This  meeting  house  was  50x70 
feet,  and  was  one  of  the  features  of  the  city.  In  an  old 
advertisement  of  John  Jacob  Astor  it  is  referred  to.  The 
complete  advertisement  is  as  follows: 

J.  JACOB  ASTOR, 
At  No.  81  Queen  Street, 
Next  door  but  one  to  the  Friends'  Meeting  House, 

HAS  FOR  SALE  AN  ASSORTMENT  OF 
PIANOFORTES  OF  THE  NEWEST  CONSTRUCTION, 
MADE  BY  THE  BEST  MAKERS  IN  LONDON,  WHICH 
HE  WILL  SELL  ON  REASONABLE  TERMS. 

HE  GIVES  CASH  FOR  ALL  KINDS  OF  FURS,  AND  HAS  FOR 
SALE  A  QUANTITY  OF  CANADA    BEAVER    AND  BEAVER 
COATING,   RACCOON   SKINS,  AND  RACCOON  BLANKETS, 
MUSKRAT  SKINS,  ETC.,  ETC. 

The  old  meeting  houses  in  later  years  underwent  many 
vicissitudes,  and,  during  the  Revolution,  the  Pearl  Street 
building  was  seized  and  used  by  the  British  as  a  barracks. 
Next  to  the  Pearl  Street  meeting  was  a  Quaker  school  for 
boys  and  girls,  under  the  care  of  the  monthly  meeting.  In 
1870  a  meeting  was  built  in  Hester  Street,  and  in  1825 
another  was  built  in  Rose  Street.  Its  dimensions  were 
58x80  feet.    In  1828  came  the  famous  Hicksite  division. 


486  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


The  latter  being  in  the  majority,  the  Orthodox  members 
were  forced  to  give  up  the  meeting  houses,  and  to  hold 
their  meetings  for  a  while  in  Rutger's  Medical  College.  In 
1828  a  meeting-house  was  built  on  Henry  Street,  between 
Market  and  Catherine ;  later  the  Jews  bought  it,  and  it  was 
used  as  a  synagogue.  In  1835  Friends  built  a  school  on 
Henry  Street,  and  a  meeting-house  on  Orchard  Street  at 
an  expense  of  forty-six  thousand  dollars,  the  contributors 
to  the  fund  being  William  F.  Mott,  Samuel  Mott  (his 
brother),  Jos.  S.  Shotwell,  Benj.  Clark,  Robert  I.  Murray, 
Henry  Hinsdale,  John  Hancock,  Thomas  Buckley,  Wm. 
Birdsall,  Samuel  Wood,  and  his  sons,  Samuel  S.  and  Wil- 
liam, Lindley  Murray,  John  Clapp,  Joshua  S.  Underbill, 
and  his  sons,  Abraham  S.,  Walter  and  Ira  B.,  J.  and  J.  Hil- 
yard,  Thos.  Cock,  John  R.  Willis,  Stacy  B.  Collins.  Smaller 
sums,  from  $100  down,  were  contributed  by  about  one  hun- 
dred other  members.  In  this  latter  class  were  included: 
Richard  H.  Bowne,  Richard  Lawrence,  Wm.  Cromwell,  Ed- 
mund H.  Prior,  Wm.  B.  Collins,  Davis  Sands,  Pelatiah  P. 
Page,  Wm.  R.  Thurston,  Deborah  C.  Hinsdale,  John  Had- 
dock, Henry  Mosher,  and  others.  Twelve  years  later  a 
larger  school  was  built  on  a  lot  to  the  north  of  this,  and 
here  a  monthly  meeting  was  held  until  1859.  In  this  year 
the  up-town  movement  was  so  pronounced  that  the  Orchard 
Street  meeting  was  given  up,  and  Friends  met  in  the  chapel 
of  Rutger's  Female  Institute  on  Madison  Street,  near  Clin- 
ton. 

The  New  York  Friends,  like  those  of  New  England, 
were  well  educated  and  highly  cultivated.  This  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  had  an  active  "concern"  for  education, 
which  found  its  expression  in  many  ways,  from  boarding 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  487 


schools  for  boys  and  girls  to  schools  for  negro  slaves,  char- 
ity and  church  schools  and  many  more.  The  Friends  founded 
the  first  non-sectarian  charity  school  in  New  York.  In  1798 
they  established  an  association  for  the  relief  of  the  "sick 
poor,"  and  in  1801  a  school  for  poor  children.  The  sub- 
scribers to  the  relief  society  were  Catherine  Murray,  Eliza- 
beth Bowne,  Sarah  Robinson,  Amy  Bowne,  Amy  Clark, 
Elizabeth  U.  Underbill,  Martha  Stansbury,  Jane  Johnston, 
Susan  Collins,  Elizabeth  Burling,  Harriet  Bobbins,  Sarah 
Tallman,  Hannah  Eddy,  Ann  Eddy,  Agnes  A.  Watt,  Sarah 
Collins,  Elizabeth  Pearsall,  Mary  R.  Bowne,  Rebecca  Hay- 
dock,  Lydia  Mott,  Penelope  Hull,  Mary  Murray  (Mrs. 
Perkins),  Hannah  Pearsall,  Margaret  B.  Haydock,  Sarah 
Haydock,  Mary  Pearsall  Robinson,  Ann  Underbill,  Caro- 
line Bowne,  Hannah  Shelton,  E.  Huyland  Walker,  Sarah 
Hallet,  Sarah  Bowne  Minturn,  Mary  Minturn,  Jr.,  De- 
borah Minturn  Watt,  Hannah  Bowne,  Ann  Shipley,  Han- 
nah Lawrence,  M.  Minturn,  Esther  Robinson  Minturn,  May 
Dunbar,  Mary  Wright,  Sarah  Lyons  Kirby,  and  Charlotte 
Leggett. 

The  Quakers  devoted  themselves  to  educational  reform, 
establishing  school  after  school,  and  are  the  founders  of  the 
public  school  system  of  New  York  to-day.  The  Public 
•  School  Society  of  New  York  was  organized  in  1805,  the 
meeting  being  called  by  Thomas  Eddy  and  John  Murray, 
Friends,  and  was  held  at  the  house  of  John  Murray  in  Pearl 
Street.  The  following  Friends  have  been  identified  with 
this  work:  Lindley  Murray,  Samuel  F.  Mott,  Jos.  B.  Col- 
lins, John  L.  Bowne,  W.  H.  Barrow,  Isaac  Collins,  Barney 
Corse,  Mahlon  Day,  Jas.  S.  Gibbons,  Whitehead  Hicks, 
Geo.  F.  Hussey,  Benj.  Minturn,  Geo.  Newbold,  W.  T. 


488  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


Slocum,  James  W.  Underbill,  Robert  W.  Cornell,  Willett 
Seaman,  Walter  Underbill,  George  T.  Trimble,  Josbua  S. 
Underbill,  Wm.  S.  Burling,  Tbos.  Bussing,  Mattbew  Clark- 
son,  Benj.  S.  Collins,  Isaac  H.  Clapp,  Tbomas  Franklin, 
Samuel  Hicks,  Antbony  P.  Halsey,  Edmund  Kirby,  Jobn 
Murray,  Jr.,  Wm.  H.  Macy,  James  B.  Nelson,  Jeremiab 
Tbomson,  Samuel  Wood,  Wm.  Seaman,  Josbua  Underbill, 
Wm.  Willis,  Tbomas  Eddy,  Tbomas  Buckley,  Walter 
Bowne,  Wm.  Birdsall,  Natban  Comstock,  Ricbard  Crom- 
well, W.  P.  Cooledge,  Mattbew  Franklin,  Valentine  Hicks, 
Henry  Hinsdale,  T.  Leggett,  Jr.,  Robert  F.  Mott,  Samuel 
C.  Mott,  Benj.  D.  Perkins,  Wm.  R.  Tburston,  Jr.,  Edmund 
Willetts,  Davis  Sands,  Ira  B.  Underbill,  and  Benj.  Clark. 

In  1775  tbe  New  York  Quakers  organized  a  Society,  tbe 
first,  I  tbink,  for  promoting  tbe  manumission  of  slaves. 
Samuel  Wood,  Israel  Corse,  Tbomas  Bussing,  Edmund  Wil- 
letts, Henry  Hinsdale,  Robert  Bowne,  Samuel  Franklin, 
George  T.  Trimble,  Ira  B.  Underbill,  were  identified  with 
it.  Tbomas  Eddy,  a  Friend,  was  a  foimder  of  tbe  first  Sav- 
ings Bank  in  New  York.  Tbe  Mission  Scbool  for  Colored 
Women,  1815,  tbe  Society  for  tbe  Prevention  of  Pauperism, 
1816,  tbe  parent  of  tbe  present  House  of  Refuge,  bad 
Friends  among  tbe  founders  and  promoters.  In  1818  tbe 
Friends  established  a  scbool  for  tbe  benefit  of  negroes  of 
Flatbusb. 

Tbe  Collins  family  was  thoroughly  identified  with  all 
the  large  movements  of  uplift  in  early  New  York.  Isaac 
Collins  was  crown  printer  for  tbe  colony  of  New  Jersey. 
He  printed  in  1791  tbe  first  quarto  Bible  America  bad  ever 
seen.  In  1864  Rebecca  Collins  moved  from  Philadelphia 
and  became  a  beloved  minister.    Tbe  ministers  and  elders 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  489 


of  the  New  York  meeting  included  some  remarkable  men 
and  women,  among  whom  were  William  F.  Mott,  Phoebe 
Mott,  Rebecca  Collins.  Samuel  F.  Mott  was  one  of  the 
managers  of  the  City  Lunatic  Asylum  and  a  very  strict 
Friend,  yet  a  wag.  Some  one  had  proposed  a  dancing  party 
for  the  lunatics  to  give  them  recreation,  but  the  sugges- 
tion was  made  that  Samuel  F.  Mott  would  object,  being  a 
Quaker.  To  their  surprise  he  agreed  to  it,  remarking  that 
he  "thought  dancing  was  just  the  thing  for  crazy  people, 
being  right  in  their  line." 

At  the  head  of  their  meeting  for  many  years  sat  Thomas 
Hawkshurst,  who  had  been  a  Revolutionary  soldier.  Other 
ministers  were  John  Wood,  Elizabeth  Coggshall,  Mahlon 
Day,  Mary  Kerr,  Sarah  E.  Hawkshurst,  Pelatiah  P.  Page 
and  others.  David  Sands,  Deborah  Hinsdale,  William 
Cromwell,  Benjamin  Tatum,  Edward  Marshall,  Henry  and 
Grace  Dickinson,  Augustus  Taber,  William  H.  Ladd,  Wil- 
liam Symmons  and  many  more,  types  of  fine  men  and 
women.   Of  these  William  H.  S.  Wood  says : 

"Forty  or  fifty  years  ago  the  spiritual  government  and 
control  of  this  meeting  by  the  elders  was  no  uncertain  thing, 
and  the  most  watchful  care  was  taken  that  the  exercise  of 
the  ministry  was  proper  and  to  the  edification  of  the  con- 
•  gregation.  Oh,  what  elders  there  were  in  those  days  I  Rec- 
ognized ministers  were  carefully  guarded  and  helped. 
Those  who  felt  called  to  speak  in  meeting  were  weighed  in 
the  balance,  and  if  approved  were  encouraged;  if  not,  were 
rarely  permitted  to  break  the  silence.  There  were  some  of 
them  who  considered  their  own  feelings  a  more  sure  pointing 
to  duty  than  the  combined  discernment  of  the  elders,  but 
such  were  labored  with  kindly,  but  firmly,  and  only  occas- 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


ionally  disturbed  the  meeting.  Strangers,  however,  who 
undertook  to  speak  in  meetings,  usually  had  a  hard  time  of 
it,  and  when  a  suggestion  from  the  gallery  proved  ineffectual 
in  bringing  such  to  their  seats,  at  a  signal  from  the  elder 
some  Friend  would  instantly  rise  and  eject  the  transgressor. 
Such  action  was  generally  approved  by  the  meeting.  Pos- 
sibly the  advocates  of  women's  rights  in  church  administra- 
tion might  date  the  first  official  step  in  this  direction  in 
New  York  Yearly  Meeting  from  the  admission  of  women 
as  members  of  the  Representative  Meeting.  This  was  in 
1876,  and  at  a  meeting  held  in  this  house.  It  may  be  of 
historical  interest  to  record  here  that  the  eight  women  thus 
honored  were  Mary  S.  Wood,  Caroline  E.  Ladd,  Ann  M. 
Haines,  Mary  U.  Ferris,  Grace  Dickinson,  Anna  C.  Tatum, 
Anna  F.  Taber,  and  Ruth  S.  Murray,  but  three  of  whom 
are  now  living."  (1904.) 

The  following  description  of  the  New  York  Meeting  in 
1864  is  taken  from  the  diary  of  William  W.  S.  Wood's 
mother:  "First  in  our  gallery  sits  William  F.  Mott,  an 
elder.  He  is  over  80  years  of  age,  and  feels  many  of  the 
infirmities  incident  to  a  long  life,  from  the  duties  of  which 
he  has  mostly  retired  after  very  many  years  of  great  useful- 
ness in  the  church  and  in  benevolent  works.  He  ever  gave 
heed  to  the  injunction  and  manifested  on  every  occasion, 
'Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might.' 
Next  to  William  F.  Mott  we  see  Edward  Marshall,  an  Eng- 
lishman by  birth.  He  is  a  sound,  intelligent  minister,  but 
not  a  frequent  speaker.  Then  William  Wood,  an  elder  who 
has  been  for  many  years  clerk  of  the  Yearly  Preparative  and 
Monthly  Meetings,  with  good  will  doing  service  as  to  the 
Lord.    At  his  side  sits  one  of  the  same  name,  but  not  a 


r 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  491 


relative.  Dr.  Stephen  Wood  has  a  loud,  sonorous  voice, 
and  sometimes  his  sentences  flow  with  fluency  and  grandeur. 
In  his  ministry  he  often  alludes  to  passing  events,  and  in- 
vites to  a  more  diligent  perusal  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and 
on  the  divinity  of  Christ  brings  forth  the  most  beautiful 
and  conclusive  texts.  He  quotes  from  the  early  Friends, 
and  desires  us  to  remove  not  the  ancient  landmarks. 

"Henry  Dickinson  is  the  next  one  in  our  gallery\  He  is 
impressive,  and  awakening  in  his  sermons,  and  has  a  clear 
head  to  elucidate  a  text.  His  motto  is  'Christ  is  All.'  He 
is  an  Englishman. 

"On  the  lowest  gallery  seat,  in  front  of  the  ministers, 
we  see  Dr.  Thomas  Cock,  the  oldest  member  of  the  meet- 
ing. He  is  a  highly  esteemed  physician  and  gentleman,  a 
sincere  Christian,  and  very  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of 
the  Society.  Next  to  him  is  Daniel  Cromwell,  an  esteemed, 
aged  Friend,  who  is  in  his  place  in  suitable  weather.  Then 
we  see  the  portly  figure  of  his  brother,  William  Cromwell, 
an  elder.  His  open  heart  and  open  house  made  him  loved 
and  respected  by  many  strangers  visiting  this  city.  He 
cautions  Friends  not  to  stumble  from  the  ancient  paths. 
Then  Isaac  H.  Allen,  a  follower  of  the  living  way  which 
Christ  has  consecrated  for  us.  By  him  is  Benjamin  Tatham, 
,  impulsive,  devoted  and  prosperous,  not  forgetting  to  give 
tithes  to  the  Lord.  Then  the  expanded  form  of  Edward 
Tatum,  who  a  few  years  since  removed  here  from  Phila- 
delphia.  He  has  a  warm  heart  and  is  valued  and  beloved. 

"Robert  Lindley  Murray  and  Joseph  Hilyard  face  the 
gallery,  and  a  number  of  old  men,  who  never  did  any  harm, 
sit  between  them.  Robert  L.  Murray  withholds  not  his 
hands  when  the  church  calls  for  work.    He  succeeded  Wil- 


492  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 

liam  Wood  as  clerk  of  the  Monthly  Meeting,  and  is  sup- 
erintendent of  the  First  Day  School.  It  may  be  said  of  him 
that  he  is  doing  the  will  of  the  Lord  from  his  heart. 

"On  the  women's  side  of  our  meeting  Rebecca  Collins 
sits  head  of  the  gallery.  She  resided  until  a  few  years  since 
in  Philadelphia,  but  is  now  living  here.  She  is  a  widow, 
and  is  much  beloved  both  as  a  minister  and  socially.  She 
tenderly  sympathizes  with  the  lowly  and  afflicted,  visiting 
and  comforting  in  many  ways.  She  manifests  that  she  is 
privileged  to  sit  in  heavenly  places  with  Christ  Jesus. 

"On  her  left  we  see  Hannah  H.  Murray  and  Elizabeth 
U.  Willis,  elders,  counted  worthy  of  double  honor.  E.  U. 
Willis  was  for  many  years  clerk  of  Monthly  and  Yearly 
Meetings. 

"Next  is  our  sweet-spirited  Grace  Dickinson  (wife  of 
Henry) .  She  is  our  youngest  minister.  In  her  abide  faith, 
hope  and  charity.  She  is  much  beloved.  The  next  is  Lydia 
Willets,  correct  in  all  her  ways,  without  sins  of  the  tongue 
to  answer  for.  The  lowest  seat  facing  the  congregation  was 
not  long  since  filled  with  aged  Friends,  but  one  after  another 
they  have  been  called  to  eternal  rest;  the  only  one  remain- 
ing is  Amy  Sutton.  Catharine  M.  Wood  (wife  of  Dr. 
Wood)  and  Elizabeth  B.  Collins,  both  young  elders,  now 
sit  there,  and  often  strangers. 

"On  the  first  seat  facing  the  gallery  is  Anna  Underbill. 
She  is  careful  to  speak  evil  of  no  one,  and  always  has  some 
good  words  for  those  spoken  against  by  others.  On  the 
other  end  of  this  bench  is  Mary  S.  Wood  (wife  of  William 
Wood).  On  the  bench  behind  are  Sarah  F.  Underbill, 
Anna  H.  Shotwell  and  Jane  U.  Ferris.  The  first  two  are 
among  those  who  established  a  colored  orphan  asylum. 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  493 


"Then  we  see  Ruth  S.  Murray  (wife  of  Robert  L.  Mur- 
ray) .  She  established  a  Mothers'  Mission  and  Mission  Sun- 
day-School, with  very  little  help.  She  is  sweet  and  cheerful, 
and  her  faith  never  fails." 

Ten  years  afterwards  she  writes:  "Brooklyn  Meeting 
being  established,  Henry  and  Grace  Dickinson  and  Isaac  H. 
Allen  attended  it,  as  they  lived  in  Brooklyn.  William 
Wood  now  sits  head  of  the  New  York  Meeting,  and  Dr. 
Stephen  Wood  next  to  him.  On  the  lowest  bench  are  Ed- 
ward Tatum,  Alden  Sampson,  Benjamin  Tatham  and  John 
Ellison.  Edward  Marshall  moved  to  Philadelphia.  Wil- 
liam F.  Mott,  Daniel  Cromwell,  Dr.  Thomas  Cock  and 
William  Cromwell  have  been  called  up  higher,  to  be  seen 
of  men  no  more. 

"Robert  Lindley  Murray  has  been  recorded  a  minister. 
He  was  instant  in  season  to  declare  what  the  Spirit  saith  to 
the  Churches,  and  he  is  now  gathered  before  the  Throne. 

"Hannah  S.  Murray,  though  very  infirm,  and  Lydia  Wil- 
lets  are  still  here;  but  Elizabeth  U.  Willis,  Anna  Under- 
bill and  Amy  Sutton  have  departed  in  peace  and  trust, 
all  about  80  years  of  age.  Anna  H.  Shotwell  has  also  joined 
the  heavenly  host.  The  places  of  some  are  vacant,  but 
others  are  occupied  by  younger  Friends,  though  past  middle 
age." 

One  of  the  most  highly  esteemed  ministers  of  the  last 
half  century  was  Abel  T.  Collins.  He  came  from  Maine 
in  1863,  with  his  wife  Mary,  who,  after  his  death,  married 
Edward  Tatum.  Abel  Collins  was  a  young  man  in  very 
moderate  circumstances,  a  hard  worker,  both  in  his  busi- 
ness and  as  a  student.  He  was  modest  and  refined  in  his 
manners.  Beloved  especially  by  the  young  men,  his  early 
death  brought  sorrow  to  all  hearts. 


494  THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION 


Thomas  Kimber  removed  to  this  city  in  1877.  He  mar- 
ried Mary  E.  Shearman,  of  New  Bedford.  He  was  col- 
lege-bred and  a  gentleman.  Active  as  a  minister,  he  trav- 
eled extensively,  preaching  sound  evangelical  Christianity 
in  a  scholarly  and  attractive  manner.  He  sat  at  the  head 
of  this  meeting  for  several  years,  and  his  death  was  a  loss 
to  it  which  has  never  been  repaired. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  following  Friends  were  pillars  of  this 
church,  viz.: 

Children  Friends.    Not  Friends. 

John  Wood   5  — 

Benjamin  Collins   7  1 

John  L.  Bowne   4  1 

Robert  Bowne   3  1 

John  W.  Willis   1  2 

William  Wood   2  — 

William  Birdsall   —  6 

Robert  F.  Mott   1  — 

William  F.  Cromwell   2  1 

Dr.  Thomas  Cock   4  2 

Daniel  Cromwell   3  2 

32  16 

In  1870  Dr.  Joseph  Bassett  Holder,  of  Lynn,  father  of 
the  author,  joined  this  meeting.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
Daniel  Holder  of  Nantucket,  and  with  Edward  Cope,  of 
Philadelphia,  perhaps  the  only  notable  examples  of  scien- 
tific men  among  the  Quakers  in  America.  Dr.  Holder  was 
never  disowned,  though  he  served  as  a  surgeon  throughout 
the  Civil  War,  his  knowledge  of  sanitary  science  saving 
hundreds  of  lives  in  Florida.  He  was  the  curator  of 
Zoology  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 


r 


DR.  JOSEPH  BAtiSETT  HOLDER 
Author,  Scientist,  Surgeon  U.  S.  Arnti/  1860-69 


THE  NEW  YORK  INVASION  495 


havirxg  joined  Professor  Bickmore  in  1870,  and  aided  in  the 
development  of  the  institution,  serving  it  until  his  death  in 
1888.  Dr.  Holder  was  the  author  of  several  books.  He 
was  a  sincere  believer  in  the  orthodox  doctrine.  For  many 
years  he  was  an  intimate  friend  of  John  G.  Whittier,  Dr. 
Nichols  and  Charles  Coffin  of  Lynn. 

While  the  Society  is  holding  its  own  and  increasing  in  the 
West,  it  has  unquestionably  fallen  away  in  New  York.  The 
reason  for  this  is  found  in  the  severity  of  the  conditions 
in  the  past  century,  marriage  out  of  the  Society  and  the 
wholesale  disownments.  The  New  York  meeting  was  dealt 
a  heavy  blow  in  1877  by  what  is  known  as  the  "Nine 
Queries"  adopted  by  the  Yearly  Meeting.  Some  of  the 
most  important  members  left  the  Meeting.  It  was  not  long 
after  this  that  the  Friends  awoke  to  the  fact  that  wholesale 
disownment  was  elimination.  To  illustrate  the  change, 
in  1870,  when  an  aunt  of  the  author  married  Colonel  Eaton 
of  the  U.  S.  Army,  she  was  not  disowned,  although  she 
joined  the  Episcopal  Church.  A  committee  of  the  New 
England  Meeting  waited  on  her,  and  said  that,  owing  to 
the  love  and  affection  for  her,  and  for  her  father  and 
mother,  John  C.  and  Hannah  G.  Gove,  they  would  not 
disown  her,  and  she  would  be  always  welcome  at  the  meet- 
ings. If  this  kindly  method  had  been  in  vogue  in  Nan- 
tucket, New  York  and  New  England  fifty  years  sooner,  the 
Society  would  not  have  been  depleted.  As  it  was,  many 
good  men  and  women  refused  to  be  bound  by  "non-essen- 
tials," always  the  hete  noir  of  Quakerism.  The  New  York 
Meeting  to-day  is  based  on  a  liberal  plan,  and  is  composed 
of  men  and  women  of  the  highest  character,  imbued  with  a 
liberal  Christian  spirit. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA. 
WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA. 

I  conceive  the  most  notable  feature  of  the  establishment 
of  the  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  was,  that  having  full  power 
to  make  the  religion  of  the  colony  Quakerism,  William 
Penn  rose  to  the  highest  idealism,  and  made  the  corner 
stone  of  the  vast  "experiment"  (paid  for  with  his  own 
money),  devoted  to  the  sect  he  believed  in — liberty  of  con- 
science with  absolute  freedom  "for  Papists,  Protestants, 
Jews  and  Turks."  Every  charge  ever  brought  against  the 
Quakers  from  the  dawn  of  the  idea  to  the  time  of  Penn  was 
answered  in  this  declaration.  The  contrast  between  this 
and  the  action  of  the  Puritans,  who  established  their  dictum 
as  absolute  in  New  England,  is  not  only  remarkable,  but  it 
gives  an  illumining  view  of  the  breadth  and  disinterested- 
ness which  underlay  Quakerism  in  the  seventeenth  century; 
and  which  makes  it  still  a  profound  influence  and  leaven  in 
the  world's  history  to-day. 

The  idea  of  a  colony  in  America  where  the  people  could 
have  absolute  liberty  of  conscience  was  conceived  by  Wil- 
liam Penn  when  a  student  at  Oxford  in  1661,  when  he  met 
Josiah  Cole,  a  kinsman  of  Christopher  Holder,  who  was  in- 
structed by  George  Fox  to  go  to  America  on  a  mission  of 
investigation  with  a  view  to  a  Quaker  colony.  Penn  writes, 
"This  I  can  say  that  I  had  an  opening  of  joy  as  to  these 
parts  (the  American  colonies)  in  the  year  1661  at  Oxford, 
twenty  years  since." 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  497 


The  experiences  of  Friends  in  New  England  and  New 
York  were  so  discouraging  that  years  passed  before  any 
headway  was  made  in  the  direction  of  colonization,  the  first 
encouragement  coming  from  New  Jersey  in  1673.  In  this 
year,  William  Penn,  through  his  influence  with  the  King 
and  the  Duke  of  York,  was  made  arbitrator  in  the  Fenwick- 
Byllinge  matter  in  New  Jersey.  Lord  Berkeley  had  sold 
his  share  in  the  province  to  the  former,  in  trust,  for 
Byllinge;  and  as  an  outcome  Penn  and  three  others  received 
nine-tenths  of  the  property,  acting  as  trustees  for  the  Quaker 
Byllinge.  In  1680,  the  Duke  of  York,  always  an  intimate 
of  Penn,  deeded  to  him  and  his  colleagues  West  Jersey, 
East  Jersey  going  to  the  Carterets.  In  1697  Lord  Carteret 
died,  and  William  Penn  and  twenty-four  others  became  the 
owners  of  East  Jersey,  with  the  hope  of  making  it  a  Quaker 
colony.  Robert  Barclay,  the  author  of  "The  Apology"  was 
made  governor,  but  he  never  came  to  America  and  ruled  only 
by  deputies.  This  plan  never  succeeded,  for  various  reasons, 
and  Penn  soon  devoted  all  his  energies  to  obtaining  the 
rich  region  to  the  south,  known  as  Pennsylvania. 

This  experience  in  New  Jersey  gave  William  Penn  aij 
insight  into  the  possibilities  of  America  for  colonization  by 
men  and  women  who  desired  freedom  of  conscience.  He 
•consulted  with  many  Friends  about  it — George  Fox,  John 
Burnyeat,  Algernon  Sydney,  the  Duke  of  York  and  the 
King,  Lord  Peterborough  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Lord  North 
and  Lord  Sunderland,  and  many  more.  In  1680  he  made 
his  proposition  to  the  King  that,  in  lieu  of  the  eighty  thou- 
sand dollars  due  him,  he  should  be  deeded  the  land  in 
America  lying  north  of  Maryland,  "bounded  on  the  east  by 

the  Delaware  River,  and  on  the  west  limited  as  Maryland 
32 


498         WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


and  northward,  to  extend  as  far  as  plantable."  The  details 
of  this  demand  comprise  a  history  in  itself,  and  the  con- 
summation was  one  of  the  mile-stones  in  American  Quaker- 
ism of  profound  importance. 

The  region  secured  included  over  forty  thousand  square 
miles  of  territory^  and  concealed  unsuspected  millions  in 
coal  and  oil.  The  vast  area  was  sold  at  a  price  less  than 
the  value  of  a  single  business  lot  in  Philadelphia  in  1913, 
and  the  insignificance  of  the  sum  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  sum  paid,  eighty  thousand  dollars,  was  supposed  to  be 
an  extraordinary  price  for  wilderness  land.  It  was  the  first 
instance  in  the  history  of  American  colonization  of  land 
being  sold  by  the  Crown. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1681,  William  Penn  received  his 
charter,  and  became  the  Lord  of  a  principality  about  as  large 
as  England.  Penn,  it  is  believed,  informed  the  King  that 
he  desired  to  name  it  New  Wales,  but  the  King  objected. 
Then  Penn  suggested  Sylvania  or  Woodland.  This  name 
was  marked  on  the  charter,  but  the  King  added  the  word 
Penn  to  Sylvania,  to  which  Penn  seriously  objected,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  appear  that  he  had  selected  it  for  self- 
aggrandizement.  To  quote  Penn,  "I  feared  lest  it  would 
be  looked  upon  as  a  vanity  in  me  and  not  as  a  respect  in  the 
King,  as  it  truly  was  to  my  father  whom  he  often  mentions 
in  praise."  The  King  appreciated  the  Quaker  modesty,  but 
he  was  determined  that  his  friend's  son  should  receive  the 
honor,  so  he  said  diplomatically,  "We  will  keep  it,  my  dear 
fellow,  but  not  on  your  account,  do  not  flatter  yourself,  we 
will  keep  the  name  to  commemorate  the  Admiral,  your  noble 
father."  So  the  new  American  Quaker  domain,  known  as 
the  "Holy  Experiment,"  became  Pennsylvania. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  499 


William  Penn  was  now  in  effect  the  Lord  of  the  Manor. 
He  could  sell  or  rent  the  land,  the  King  demanding  but  two 
bearskins  annually,  and  one-fifth  of  all  the  gold  and  silver 
found  in  the  domain.  A  fifth  of  all  the  coal  and  oil  found 
in  Pennslylvania  later  would  have  been  a  king's  ransom. 
The  Penn  charter,  which  he  drew  himself,  and  in  which  he 
was  designated  as  Proprietary,  was  written  on  parchment, 
"each  line  underscored  with  red  ink,  and  the  borders  gor- 
geously decorated."  The  original  is  now  in  the  Division  of 
Public  Records  in  the  State  Library  at  Harrisburg.  The 
charter  was  designed  after  that  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore 
for  Maryland,  but  was  not  so  liberal.  When  the  Assembly 
of  Maryland  passed  a  law,  it  became  valid  when  Lord 
Baltimore  signed  it;  but  the  Pennsylvania  laws  had  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  King,  who  thus  kept  his  hand  upon  the 
Quaker  helm.  In  Maryland  the  King  could  not  levy  a  tax ; 
but  in  Pennsylvania  the  Crown  reserved  this  right.  Un- 
questionably the  King  was  advised  not  to  give  too  free  a 
hand  to  a  colony  three  thousand  miles  distant,  in  anticipa- 
tion of  possible  rebellion  on  the  part  of  colonists. 

Penn  was  obliged  to  give  his  people  free  government. 
They  were  to  have  the  right  to  elect  their  own  legislative 
body ;  but  Penn  had  the  right  to  veto :  he  could  also  appoint 
•various  civic  officers  as  m.agistrates,  and  he  had  the  power  of 
pardon  except  in  capital  offenses.  Penn  was  also  denomin- 
ated the  Governor  in  perpetuity,  and  despite  the  proviso  of 
the  government  to  protect  itself  from  any  possible  contin- 
gency, Penn  was  given  every  possible  liberty,  and  permitted 
to  shape  the  policy  of  the  new  colony  without  interference. 
This  he  proceeded  to  do  in  a  most  liberal  manner,  carrying 
out  the  highest  principles  of  the  Quakers,  and  assuring  all 
would-be  immigrants  of  perfect  religious  freedom. 


WILLIAM  PEXN  IX  AMERICA 


The  advanced  views  of  Quakerism  were  seen  in  the  state- 
ment that  governments  existed  for  the  people,  not  people  for 
governments;  that  imprisonment  was  not  the  last  word  for 
criminals,  they  were  to  be  reformed,  if  possible  by  Christian 
treatment.  In  Massachusetts  a  man  could  be  hung  for 
idolatry,  witch-craft,  adulter}*,  bearing  false  witness,  striking 
a  parent,  swearing,  and  not  long  before,  for  being  a  Quaker. 
Penn  struck  these  from  the  list,  and  capital  punishment  could 
only  be  inflicted  in  case  of  murder  or  high  treason,  a  mar- 
velous reform  for  the  age.  Perm's  intentions  were  set  forth 
in  a  letter  he  sent  to  the  colony  by  his  cousin,  William  Mark- 
ham,  in  April,  1681,  who  went  out  as  deput}^  governor.  It 
is  as  follows: 

"My  friends:  I  wish  you  all  happiness,  here  and  here- 
after. These  are  to  let  you  know  that  it  hath  pleased  God, 
in  his  providence,  to  cast  you  within  my  lot  and  care.  It  is 
a  business  that,  though  I  never  undertook  before,  yet  God 
has  given  me  an  understanding  of  my  duty,  and  an  honest 
mind  to  do  it  uprightly.  I  hope  you  will  not  be  troubled  at 
your  change  and  the  King's  choice,  for  you  are  now  fixed 
at  the  mercy  of  no  governor  that  comes  to  make  his  fortune 
great;  you  shall  be  governed  by  laws  of  your  own  making, 
and  live  a  free,  and,  if  you  will,  a  sober  and  industrious 
people.  I  shall  not  usurp  the  right  of  any.  or  oppress  his 
person.  God  has  furnished  me  with  a  better  resolution,  and 
has  given  me  His  grace  to  keep  it.  In  short,  whatever  sober 
and  free  men  can  desire  for  the  security  and  improvement  of 
their  own  happiness,  I  shall  heartily  comply  with,  and  in 
five  months  I  resolve,  if  it  please  God,  to  see  you.  In  the 
meantime  pray  submit  to  the  commands  of  my  depur\%  so  far 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  501 


as  they  are  consistent  with  the  law,  and  pay  him  those  dues 
(that  formerly  you  paid  to  the  order  of  the  Governor  of 
New  York)  for  my  use  and  benefit,  and  so  I  beseech  God  to 
direct  you  in  the  way  of  righteousness,  and  therein  prosper 
you  and  your  children  after  you. 
"I  am  your  true  friend, 

"William  Penn." 

Penn  now  began  to  interest  Quakers  and  others  in  his 
colony,  and  was  so  eminently  successful  that  in  the  year 
following  the  granting  of  the  charter  twenty  ships  sailed  for 
the  Delaware,  carrying  nearly  three  thousand  immigrants, 
many  of  whom  were  Quakers.  He  secured  a  grant  from  the 
Duke  of  York  for  the  land  now  known  as  Delaware,  so  that 
he  could  control  the  coast  line  on  the  western  side  of  Dela- 
ware River  and  Bay  to  the  ocean,  all  of  which  indicated  that 
he  was  well  advised  and  looked  well  to  the  future.  He 
threw  his  entire  personality  into  the  "Holy  Experiment," 
and  his  enthusiasm  was  so  infectious  that  the  colony  grew  in 
leaps  and  bounds,  and  became  the  talk  of  London,  where  the 
continual  departure  of  Quakers  was  welcomed  by  the  King, 
who  had  cleverly  paid  his  debt  and  paved  a  way  for  the  per- 
sistent Friends  to  leave  the  scenes  of  their  troubles.  In  a 
.year  after  receiving  the  charter,  Penn  found  his  affairs  in 
such  shape  that  he  could  visit  the  colony,  and  in  the  summer 
of  1682  he  sailed  from  Deal  in  the  ship  'Welcome',  probably 
innocent  that  Cotton  Mather  was  devising  a  plan  to  have  his 
ship  intercepted,  and  himself  sold  a  slave  at  Barbados, 
as  the  following  letter  indicates;  though  how  this  interesting 
figure  in  New  England  history  expected  to  seriously  annoy  a 
man  of  Penn's  prominence,  a  protege  of  King  Charles'  and 
intimate  of  the  Duke  of  York,  is  difficult  to  imagine. 


502  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


"Boston,  Sept.  ye  15th,  1682. 
"To  ye  aged  and  beloved  John  Higginson. 

"There  be  at  sea  a  shippe  called  *Ye  Welcome,'  R.  Green- 
way  Master,  which  has  on  board  a  hundred  or  more  of  ye 
heretics  and  malignants  called  Quakers,  with  W.  Penne,  ye 
chief  scampe,  at  the  head  of  them.  Ye  General  Court  has 
accordingly  given  secret  orders  to  Master  Malachi  Huxett  of 
ye  brig  Porpasse  to  walaye  sed  'Welcome'  as  near  ye  coast 
of  Codde  as  may  be  and  make  captive  ye  said  Penne  and  his 
imgodly  crew  so  that  ye  Lord  may  be  glorified  and  not 
mocked  on  ye  soil  of  this  new  countre  with  ye  heathen  wor- 
ships of  these  people 

"Much  spoyle  may  be  made  by  selling  ye  whole  lot  to 
Barbadoes,  where  slaves  fetch  goode  prices  in  rumme  and 
sugar,  and  shall  not  only  do  ye  Lord  great  service  in  punish- 
ing the  wicked,  but  we  shall  make  great  good  for  his  minis- 
ters and  people.  Master  Huxett  feels  hopeful,  and  I  will 
set  down  ye  news  when  his  shippe  comes  back.  Yours  in 
ye  bowels  of  Christ, 

"Cotton  Mather."* 

The  "Welcome"  appears  to  have  missed  the  "Brig  Por- 
passe," as  she  landed  at  New  Castle,  Delaware,  on  the  27th 
of  October,  1682,  after  a  long  trip  of  over  two  months,  dur- 
ing which  thirty  of  the  one  hundred  passengers  died  of  small- 
pox at  sea. 

Up  to  1681  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware 
were  Indians,  and  a  few  Swedes  and  Dutch,  and  Quakers; 
the  whites  having  a  small  settlement  at  Tacony  opposite 


*I  have  been  unable  to  trace  the  original  of  this  interesting  letter 
and  cannot  vouch  for  its  authenticity,  though  it  was  given  in  good  faith. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  503 


Burlington,  and  at  Chester,  then  known  as  Upland.  Penn 
received  a  hearty  welcome  from  the  Dutch  and  Swedish 
settlers.  At  Newcastle  he  presented  his  "deeds  of  enfeoff- 
ment'', and  in  turn  the  inhabitants  handed  to  him  soil,  water 
and  branch,  indicating  their  recognition  of  his  right  as  Pro- 
prietor and  Governor. 

From  here  he  journeyed  up  the  river  to  the  present  location 
of  Chester,  where  he  was  welcomed  and  entertained  by  Rob- 
ert Wade,  said  to  be  the  first  Quaker  to  enter  Pennsylvania. 
One  of  Penn's  intimates  was  Thomas  Pearson,  grandfather 
of  Benjamin  West,  and  when  standing  with  him,  gazing  at 
the  beautiful  country  he  could  call  his  own,  he  said :  "Provi- 
dence has  brought  us  here  safe.  Thou  hast  been  the  com- 
panion of  my  perils,  what  wilt  thou  that  I  shalt  call  this 
place"?"  "Call  it  Chester,"  responded  his  friend,  who  was 
from  the  old  walled  city  of  that  name.  Here  in  the  Quaker 
meeting  house  a  four-day  assembly  was  held,  during  which 
Penn  explained  more  fully  what  he  proposed  to  do,  and  told 
his  auditors  that  they  were  to  have  a  government  in  advance 
of  anything  enjoyed  by  any  people  in  the  world;  that  they 
were  free  men  and  could  worship  God  as  they  wished,  with- 
out even  criticism.  All  he  demanded  was  that  they  should 
obey  the  law  and  live  uprightly.  Here  the  great  laws  of 
Pennsylvania,  including  sixty-one  statutes,  were  passed,  and 
the  real  Pennsylvania  began  its  lease  of  life,  doubtless  having 
for  its  motto  the  following,  which  is  included  in  the  "frame 
of  government":  "We  declare  that  we  hold  it  our  glory 
that  the  law  of  Jehovah  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  Pennsyl- 
vania." 

William  Penn  was  charmed  with  his  great  possession,  and 
in  letters  to  Friends  in  England,  he  wrote  enthusiastically 
about  it. 


504  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


He  now  went  to  New  York  to  pay  a  visit  of  courtesy  to  the 
authorities ;  then  he  proceeded  on  the  same  mission  to  Mary- 
land, where  he  met  Lord  Baltimore.  Returning,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  select  a  location  for  a  central  city  upon  which  his 
commissioners  had  been  at  work.  His  decision  was  the  neck 
of  land  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Schuylkill,  a  location 
"not  surpassed  by  one  among  all  the  many  places  he  had  seen 
in  the  world."  He  selected  the  name  "Philadelphia"  from 
the  two  Greek  words  meaning  "Brotherly  Love",  hoping  that 
the  name  would  be  prophetic  of  the  life  of  the  residents. 

Penn  was  now  fairly  started  with  his  great  experiment; 
not  only  the  Governor  but  the  practical  owner  of  a  region, 
with  its  later  additions,  twice  as  large  as  the  mother  country. 
He  proposed  to  populate  it,  build  it  up  into  a  great  haven  for 
the  people  of  the  old  world,  one  of  the  most  stupendous  un- 
dertakings ever  attempted  by  one  man,  a  responsibility  so 
profound  that  it  might  well  have  stayed  the  hand  of  criti- 
cism; it  being  a  self-evident  fact  that  he  would  have  to  leave 
much  of  the  actual  labor  to  managers  and  deputies.  The 
most  liberal  terms  were  given  to  settlers,  there  were  no  special 
privileges,  no  monopolies,  no  great  land  schemes. 

Penn  sold  the  land  at  the  rate  of  one  thousand  acres  for 
$100.,  or  five  thousand  acres  for  $500.,  and  annually  one 
shilling  for  every  hundred  acres  as  rent.  If  the  would-be 
settler  did  not  have  the  requisite  amount,  he  was  given  two 
hundred  acres  or  less,  at  a  rent  of  twenty-five  cents  per  acre 
per  annum,  until  he  could  pay  for  it.  Fairer  terms  could  not 
be  asked,  immigrants  poured  in;  and  a  few  months  after  his 
arrival,  twenty-three  ships  arrived,  and  within  six  months  of 
the  founding  of  Philadelphia,  the  city  possessed  eighty  good 
houses  and  cottages,  a  thriving  business,  while  the  farmers 


GEORGE  WASHIXGTOX 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  505 


had  laid  out  over  three  hundred  farms.  Three  years  later, 
Philadelphia  boasted  six  hundred  houses,  and  the  state  had 
at  least  hfty  towns  laid  out  and  occupied.  Ninety  ships 
arrived  at  Philadelphia  in  the  first  two  years  of  its  life,  bring- 
ing seven  thousand  passengers,  mostly  Friends,  and  the  col- 
ony in  a  short  time  had  nine  or  ten  thousand  inhabitants. 
Compare  the  growth  of  this  province,  which  guaranteed 
free  conscience,  to  that  of  New  York,  where  Quakers  were 
ill-used,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  Philadelphia  gained  more 
in  three  years  than  did  New  York  in  fifty.  It  even  sur- 
passed New  England,  into  which  the  Puritans  were  pouring 
in  a  never  ending  stream. 

Among  the  first  buildings  erected  was  a  meeting  house, 
and  the  first  Yearly  Meeting  was  held  at  Burlington  on  the 
28th  of  sixth  month,  1 68 1 ;  this  originated  in  the  Burling- 
ton, N.  J.,  Monthly  Meeting. 

In  1682  an  organization  was  effected  in  Philadelphia  at 
which  it  was  agreed  to  hold  Monthly  Meetings,  and  consider 
every  third  one  a  quarterly.  General  meetings  were  also 
held  alternating  in  Burlington  and  Philadelphia  up  to  1760, 
after  which  all  the  Yearly  Meetings  were  held  in  Phila- 
delphia. 

One  of  the  questions  which  occupied  the  attention  of 
'William  Penn  was  that  of  Indians.  The  Quaker  policy 
was  that  the  natives  had  the  same  rights  as  the  whites,  and 
they  proposed  to  treat  them  honorably.  The  famous  treaty 
w^ith  the  Indians,  which  has  been  the  subject  of  artists  and 
poets,  was  probably  consummated  in  June,  1683,  was 
doubtless  a  meeting  w^ith  chiefs  to  arrange  a  purchase  of 
land  from  them.  As  oaths  were  not  used  by  the  Quakers,  or 
required,  they  merely  promised  the  Indians  certain  things, 


5o6         WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


all  of  which  were  religiously  carried  out.  The  King  had 
insisted  that  a  clause  providing  for  an  armed  force  to  pro- 
tect the  Quakers  from  the  Indians  should  be  inserted  in  the 
charter  whether  Penn  wished  it  or  not.  "What",  said  the 
King,  when  Penn  protested,  "venture  yourself  among  the 
savages  of  North  America!"  "I  want  none  of  your 
majesty's  soldiers,"  replied  Penn.  "But  how  will  you  get 
your  lands  without  soldiers^"  asked  the  King.  "I  mean  to 
buy  their  lands  of  them,"  said  Penn.  "Why,  man,"  rejoined 
the  amazed  monarch,  "you  have  bought  them  of  me 
already!"  The  answer  of  Penn  tells  the  story  of  Quaker- 
ism better  than  a  volume. 

"W.  Penn. — Yes;  I  know  I  have,  and  at  a  dear  rate  too: 
I  did  this  to  gain  thy  good  will,  not  that  I  thought  thou 
hadst  any  right  to  their  lands — I  will  buy  the  rights  of  the 
proper  owners,  even  of  the  Indians  themselves:  by  doing 
this,  I  shall  imitate  God  in  His  justice  and  mercy,  and 
hope,  thereby,  to  insure  His  blessing  on  my  colony,  if  I 
should  ever  live  to  plant  one  in  North  America." 

Deputy  Governor  Markham  had  already  dealt  with  the 
Indians,  and  explained  the  policy  of  the  Quakers,  and  they 
were  so  impressed  that  they  said  they  would  "live  in  peace 
with  the  Onas  (Plume)  and  his  children  as  long  as  the  sun 
and  moon  shall  endure."  The  Indians  handed  down  the 
meaning  of  the  great  Shackamaxon  treaty  to  their  children, 
and  their  children's  children.  Penn  doubtless  refers  to 
this  treaty  of  romantic  history  in  a  letter  to  the  Free  Society 
of  Traders  written  August  16,  1683.  The  reference  is  as 
follows : 

"When  the  purchase  was  agreed,  great  promises  passed 
between  us,  of  kindness  and  good  neighborhood,  and  that 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  507 


the  English  and  Indians  must  live  in  love  as  long  as  the  sun 
gave  light:  which  done,  another  made  a  speech  to  the 
Indians,  in  the  name  of  all  the  Sachamakan,  or  kings,  first 
to  tell  them  what  was  done;  next,  to  charge  and  command 
them  to  love  the  Christians,  and  particularly  live  in  peace 
with  me  and  the  people  imder  my  government.  That  many 
governors  had  been  in  the  river,  but  that  no  governor  had 
come  himself  to  live  and  stay  there  before;  and  that  now 
having  such  a  one  that  had  treated  them  well,  they  should 
never  do  him  or  his  any  wrong.  At  every  sentence  of  which 
they  shouted,  and  said.  Amen,  in  their  way." 

The  famous  treaty  with  the  Delawares  or  Lenni-Lenape 
was  held  in  all  probability  beneath  a  big  elm  at  Shacka- 
maxon,  which  lived  until  1810,  when  it  was  blown  down. 
Two  treaties  were  referred  to,  and  doubtless  many  were 
held;  but  the  famous  picture  of  Benjamin  West,  which  is 
more  or  less  fanciful,  has  created  an  interest  in  the  occasion 
that  will  never  die.  In  this  picture  are  a  number  of  por- 
traits, one  of  James  Logan,  the  famous  secretary  of  William 
Penn,  I  am  told  by  a  descendant.  The  really  remarkable 
feature  of  the  treaty,  so  far  as  history  is  concerned,  was  that 
every  promise  made  to  the  Indians  by  Penn  was  kept 
inviolate.  This  amazed  even  the  adamantine  and  unim- 
'  pressionable  Voltaire,  who  refers  to  it  as  "the  only  treaty 
with  a  nation  that  was  never  confirmed  by  an  oath,  and 
never  broken." 

As  to  the  payment  to  the  Indians  for  their  lands,  an  idea 
can  be  obtained  from  the  purchase  in  1685  of  a  large  tract 
extending  from  the  Delaware  to  the  Susquehanna.  Penn 
was  in  Europe,  but  the  negotiations  were  conducted  with 
four  chiefs — Shakkopoh,  Sekane,  Tangoros  and  Malibore — 


5o8  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


who  demanded  of  the  Quakers  and  were  paid,  forty-four 
pounds  of  red  lead,  thirty  pairs  of  hawks  bells,  thirty  fath- 
oms of  duffels,  sixty  fathoms  of  strand  waters  (known  as 
cloth,  thirty  each  of  guns,  kettles,  shirts,  combs,  axes,  knives, 
bars  of  lead,  pounds  of  powder,  pairs  of  scissors,  pairs  of 
stockings,  glasses,  awls,  tobacco  boxes,  three  papers  of  beads, 
six  draw  knives,  six  caps,  twelve  hoes,  two  hundred  fathoms 
of  wampum  (money). 

No  feature  of  the  Quaker  settlement  of  Pennsylvania 
has  so  taken  the  popular  fancy  as  that  of  Penn  and  his 
treaty  with  the  Indians;  but  it  is  perhaps  going  too  far  to 
say  that  the  entire  credit  of  the  Quaker  pseudo  influence 
with  the  Indians  explained  their  immunity  from  attack  for 
seventy  years,  or  until  the  colony  was  settled  far  to  the 
west,  and  the  settlers  began  to  infringe  on  the  lands  of  the 
Algonquins.  The  natives  were  unquestionably  impressed 
by  Penn,  who  was  a  gentleman  of  majestic  appearance, 
always  well-groomed,  he  never  broke  his  word  with  them, 
nor  is  there  a  case  on  record  of  an  act  of  unfairness  which 
can  be  proven  against  a  Quaker  in  his  relations  with  the 
Indians.  They  treated  them  as  equals,  were  uniformly  kind 
and  liberal,  all  of  which  bound  the  two  people  together  in 
the  strong  bonds  of  fraternal  friendship. 

There  was,  however,  another  factor  which  tended  to  pro- 
tect the  Quakers,  known  to  those  who  have  studied  the 
Indian  situation  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  America. 
When  Christopher  Holder,  Josiah  Cole  and  William  Pear- 
son were  traveling  in  America,  long  before  the  arrival  of 
Penn,  there  was  a  desperate  war  waging  between  the  Iro- 
quois tribe  of  Susquehannocks  and  the  Long  House.  The 
former  lost  and  wandered  to  the  south.    Penn  made  his 


r 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  509 


treaty  with  the  Delawares  or  Algonquins,  who  had  been  so 
humiliated  by  the  Long  House  that  they  were  practically 
vassals,  and  paid  tribute  to  the  powerful  Five  Nations, — 
the  Long  House  was  a  firm  friend  of  Corlear  in  New  York, 
hence  if  the  crushed  and  vassal  Delawares,  the  last  of  the 
once  terrible  Lenni^Lenape,  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
defenseless  and  unarmed  Quakers,  Penn  would  only  have 
had  to  notify  the  Dutch  or  English  in  New  York,  and  the 
warriors  of  the  Five  Nations,  the  Cayugas  and  Senecas 
would  have  descended  upon  them.  Politics  was  not 
unknown  in  aboriginal  America,  and  it  doubtless  played  a 
part  in  the  history  of  the  Pennsylvania  Quakers:  there  was 
a  balance  of  power  in  America  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

William  Penn  learned  in  1684  that  affairs  were  not  going 
well  with  the  Quakers  in  England,  and  in  the  summer  of 
that  year  he  sailed  for  the  mother  country,  hoping  to  appeal 
to  Charles  the  Second  and  the  Duke  of  York,  and  put  a 
check  upon  the  magistrates  who  were  now  ill-treating 
Quakers.  He  bade  his  people  farewell,  promising  to  return 
soon;  but  fifteen  years  elapsed  before  he  again  saw  American 
shores. 

The  peaceful  and  initial  years  in  Pennsylvania  saw  stir- 
ring times  in  adjoining  colonies.  New  England  particularly 
,  was  under  a  cloud.  The  Puritans  resented  the  interference 
of  the  King  in  the  affairs  of  the  Quakers,  and  were  on  the 
border  of  open  revolt.  Their  commissions  to  England  were 
not  received  with  any  degree  of  cordiality,  as  the  Quakers 
through  Penn  were  in  favor.  The  King  agreed  to  respect 
the  New  England  charter,  but  insisted  upon  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Puritan  laws  aimed  at  the 
Episcopalians  and  Quakers.     Governor  Andros  in  New 


510  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


York  had  displeased  the  Duke  of  York  in  the  matter  of 
custom  duties,  and  the  latter  was  so  thoroughly  disgusted 
that  he  would  have  sold  the  colony  to  the  highest  bidder, 
had  not  his  friend  William  Penn  interfered. 

"What!"  said  Penn,  "sell  New  York?  Don't  think  of 
such  a  thing,  just  give  it  self-government  and  there  will  be 
no  more  trouble."  The  Duke,  who  had  the  highest  respect 
for  his  Quaker  friend's  opinion,  took  his  advice.  Andros 
was  made  a  gentleman  of  the  King's  Chamber,  and  given 
a  long  lease  of  the  island  of  Alderney,  Colonel  Thomas  Don- 
gan  was  sent  to  New  York  as  Governor,  and  the  first 
Assembly  was  held  in  1683  when  Philadelphia  was  rapidly 
becoming  a  city. 

It  is  not  to  be  conceived  that  Penn's  "Holy  Experiment" 
could  have  escaped  criticism.  Envious  rivals,  personal 
and  political  enemies  of  long  standing  attacked  him  with 
virulence;  and  Macaulay,  who  appears  to  have  admitted 
much  contumelious  fiction  into  his  history  of  England,  ap- 
parently stands  sponsor  for  them.  But  the  attacks  did  not 
seriously  interfere  with  the  project.  On  the  death  of 
Charles  II.,  the  Duke  of  York  ascended  the  throne,  and  at 
once  the  Quakers,  who  formerly  had  hardly  a  friend  at  court, 
were  represented  by  a  leader  who  stood  nearer  to  his  Catholic 
Majesty  than  any  one:  so  near  that  his  enemies  did  not  fail 
to  point  out  that  Penn  was  really  a  Jesuit  in  disguise  The 
coronation  of  King  James  II.  and  his  imquestioned  affection 
for  Penn,  caused  a  change  in  the  latter' s  plans.  The  imme- 
diate return  to  the  colony  was  given  up,  and  Thomas  Lloyd, 
the  friend  of  John  Ap  John,  became  the  confidant  and  rep- 
resentative of  Penn  in  America. 

Through  the  influence  of  Penn,  hundreds  of  Quakers  were 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  511 


(1685)  released;  among  them  Edward  Gove  of  Hampton, 
who  had  been  confined  in  the  Tower  of  London  for  three 
years  on  a  charge  of  treason.  The  enemies  of  Penn,  imable 
to  carry  out  their  nefarious  designs,  or  obtain  great  monop- 
olies in  his  colony,  attacked  him  at  home.  Macaulay  charges 
him  with  being  a  go-between  of  certain  maids  of  honor,  to 
blackmail  the  parents  of  certain  children.  The  evidence  in 
the  case  is  a  letter  of  Lord  Sunderland;  addressed  to  "a  Mr. 
Penn,"  who  is  known  to  have  been  a  notorious  pardon 
broker  of  the  day,  named  George  Penn,  not  even  a  kinsman 
of  the  Quaker.  Macaulay  was  charged  with  this  outrage  in 
the  preface  of  Clarkson's  "Life  of  Penn,"  1850.  He  replied 
to  it,  and  was  replied  to  in  turn  by  John  Paget  of  London, 
who,  in  the  words  of  John  Fiske,  "left  Macaulay  in  a  sorry 
plight."  In  this  way  can  be  disposed  of  all  the  many 
charges  against  the  honor  and  character  of  the  great  Quaker. 
Fiske  further  says,  "None  of  the  charges  brought  against 
William  Penn  have  been  adequately  supported;  and  so  far 
was  his  character  from  deteriorating  through  his  intimacy 
with  James  II.  that  at  no  time  in  his  life  does  he  seem  more 
honest,  brave  and  lovable  than  during  the  years  so  full  of 
trouble  to  him  that  intervened  between  the  accession  of 
James  and  the  accession  of  Anne." 

The  friendship  between  the  Roman  Catholic  King  James 
and  William  Penn  the  Quaker  was  a  strange  one;  but  it 
began  in  youth  and  so  continued.  One  day,  the  King  asked 
William  Penn  how  the  Quaker  religion  differed  from  that 
of  the  Roman  Catholic.  Pointing  to  their  several  hats,  the 
King's  with  its  plumes  and  gorgeous  decorations,  his  own 
without  ornament,  he  said,  "The  only  difference,  your 
Majesty,  lies  in  the  ornaments  that  have  been  added  to 


512  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


them."  The  King  laughed  at  many  of  the  picadilloes  of 
the  Quakers,  and  did  not  object  to  being  "thou'd"  and 
"thee'd"  by  Penn,  though  it  unquestionably  threw  many  of 
the  courtiers  into  a  rage.  This  use  of  "plain"  language 
occasioned  the  Quakers  as  much  trouble  as  anything,  as 
those  so  addressed  honestly  supposed  themselves  insulted. 
At  this  period  'thee'  and  'thou'  were  terms  used  in  addressing 
inferiors,  the  common  people  and  servants ;  hence  when  Penn 
used  it  to  a  gentleman  or  an  official,  it  was  taken  as  a  gross 
insult,  without  cause  or  reason,  and  was  resented  as  would  be 
a  gross  epithet.  Fisher  says,  "Penn  describes  the  indigna- 
tion with  which  people  would  turn  on  a  Quaker  and  ex- 
claim,— "Thou  me,  thou  my  dog  I  If  thou  thou'st  me,  I'll 
thou  thy  teeth  down  thy  throat."  To  which  the  Quaker 
would  reply  by  asking,  "Why  then,  dost  thou  always  address 
God  in  thy  prayers  by  thee  and  thou*?" 

While  the  friendship  between' the  King  and  Penn  was  the 
cause  of  the  advancement  of  the  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania 
and  elsewhere,  it  involved  them  in  many  charges  of  pseudo 
Jesuitism,  and  created  for  them  a  new  band  of  enemies. 
Among  other  denominations  he  was  styled  "William,  the 
Papist".  Penn  became  so  interested  in  securing  justice  for 
Quakers  that  he  became  a  prominent  and  conspicuous  figure 
as  a  friend  of  the  King.  He  was  forced  into  the  public  eye, 
and  became  a  courtier  without  knowing  it,  yet  was  well  cal- 
culated by  his  many  graces  to  fill  the  position  of  a  king's 
friend.  He  now  rented  Holland  House  from  the  Earl  of 
Warwick,  and  became  one  of  the  most  influential  men  at 
court.  The  extraordinary  expense  attendant  upon  this  life, 
and  the  fact  that  Pennsylvania  was  still  a  financial  drag 
upon  him,  embarrassed  Penn  not  a  little.    He  was  practi- 


r 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  513 


cally  paying  the  expenses  of  the  government  in  the  Colony, 
and  that  his  officials  drew  on  him  is  shown  in  the  following 
extract : 

'"'I  have  had  two  letters  more,"  he  writes  to  his  steward,  "with  three 
bills  of  exchange.  I  am  sorry  the  public  is  so  unmindful  of  me  as  not 
to  prevent  bills  upon  me,  that  am  come  on  their  errand,  and  had  rather 
have  lost  a  thousand  pounds  than  have  stirred  from  Pennsylvania. 

.  James,  send  no  more  bills,  for  I  have  enough  to  do  to 
keep  all  even  here,  and  think  of  returning  with  my  family;  that  can't 
be  without  vast  charge." 

William  Penn's  heart  was  in  Pennsylvania,  and  he  was 
continually  endeavoring  to  return.  In  1686  he  went  to  Hol- 
land partly  on  a  diplomatic  mission  and  to  induce  the  mem- 
bers and  other  Quaker-like  persons  to  go  to  Pennsylvania 
whose  future  depended  on  active  growth.  Mary,  the  daugh- 
ter of  King  James,  had  married  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  if 
James  died  childless  Mary  would  be  the  heir  to  the  English 
crown.  Hence  we  may  assume  that  William  Penn  was  look- 
ing ahead  to  the  possibilities,  and  it  is  known  that  he  endeav- 
ored to  obtain  a  promise  from  W^illiam  to  not  only  guarantee 
freedom  of  religious  worship  in  England,  but  to  guarantee 
the  abolishment  of  the  test  laws  which  kept  Roman  Catholics 
and  Dissenters  out  of  Parliament  and  office.  The  latter 
William  refused  to  do,  to  the  chagrin  of  Penn  and  King 
James;  William  taking  the  offensive  ground  that  the  "test 
•laws"  were  all  that  prevented  King  James  from  handing 
the  British  government  over  to  Rome. 

Penn  was  violently  attacked  for  this  and  denounced  as  a 
Papist.    Bishop  Burnet  thus  refers  to  the  incident : 

"But  for  the  tests  he  w^ould  enter  into  no  treaty  about  them.  He 
said  it  was  plain  betraying  the  security  of  the  Protestant  religion  to 
give  them  up.  Nothing  was  left  unsaid  that  might  move  him  to  agree 
to  this  in  the  way  of  interest.  The  king  would  enter  into  an  entire 
33 


514         WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


confidence  with  him,  and  would  put  his  best  friends  in  the  chief  trusts. 
Pen  undertook  for  this  so  positively,  that  he  seemed  to  believe  it  him- 
self, or  he  was  a  great  proficient  in  the  art  of  dissimulation.  Many- 
suspected  that  he  was  a  concealed  Papist.  It  is  certain  he  was  much 
with  Father  Peter,  and  was  particularly  trusted  by  the  Earl  of  Sun- 
derland. So,  tho'  he  did  not  present  any  commssion  for  what  he  prom- 
ised, yet  we  looked  on  him  as  a  man  employed.  To  all  this  the  Prince 
answered,  that  no  man  was  more  for  toleration  in  principle  than  he 
was:  He  thought  the  conscience  was  only  subject  to  God.  And  as 
far  as  a  general  toleration,  even  of  Papists,  would  content  the  king,  he 
would  concur  in  it  heartily:  But  he  looked  on  the  Tests  as  such  a 
real  security,  and  indeed  the  only  one,  when  the  king  was  of  another 
religion,  that  he  would  join  in  no  counsels  with  those  that  intended 
to  repeal  those  laws  that  enacted  them.  Pen  said  the  king  would  have 
all  or  nothing:  But  that  if  this  was  once  done  the  king  would  secure 
the  toleration  by  a  solemn  and  unalterable  law.  To  this  the  late  repeal 
of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  that  was  declared  perpetual  and  irrevocable, 
furnished  an  answer  that  admitted  of  no  reply."  ("Burnet's  History 
of  his  Own  Times,"  vol.  i.  693,  694.) 

Penn's  attitude  has  been  attacked  and  maligned;  but  it 
was  essentially  the  Quaker  view — that  all  men  should  have 
equal  rights  under  the  law,  no  matter  what  the  religion.  It 
is  also  claimed  that  Penn  was  being  "used"  by  the  king, 
that  he  was  lacking  in  shrewdness,  and  that  he  was  a  Papist ; 
but  from  the  Quaker  standpoint  he  was  only  right. 

In  the  following  years  William  Penn  preached  over  all 
England,  becoming  more  impoverished  by  the  demands  on 
him  from  the  colony.  He  was  active  in  politics  and  issued 
a  pamphlet  entitled,  "Good  Advice  to  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  Dissenters,"  in  support  of  the  king's  policy  after 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1687.  This  made  him 
many  enemies.  The  king  became  so  ardent  in  his  desire  to 
establish  the  Catholics  in  England  that  the  people  revolted 
in  1689  and  brought  over  William,  the  Protestant  Prince 
of  Orange,  James  fleeing  to  France,  where  he  lived  as  a  pen- 
sioner oh  Louis  XIV.  until  his  death. 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  515 


This  was  a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  Quakers  and  Penn.  The 
latter,  however,  was  a  true  man  and  he  never  deserted  his 
friend  James  II.,  and  never  could  be  induced  to  criticise  him; 
and  that  he  firmly  believed  that  more  real  toleration  was  to 
be  had  under  James  than  William  cannot  be  doubted.  Penn 
neither  hurried  to  William  to  bend  the  knee,  nor  fled;  he  re- 
mained where  he  was,  and  his  enemies  procured  his  arrest  on 
the  10th  of  December,  1688.  He  was  taken  before  the  Privy 
Council,  and  the  following  is  said  to  be  his  statement : 

*'He  had  done  nothing  but  what  he  could  answer  before  God  and 
all  the  princes  in  the  world;  that  he  loved  his  country  and  the  Pro- 
testant religion  above  his  life,  and  had  never  acted  against  either;  that 
all  he  had  ever  aimed  at  in  his  public  endeavors  was  no  other  than 
what  the  prince  himself  had  declared  for  (religious  liberty);  that  King 
James  had  always  been  his  friend,  and  his  father's  friend,  and  that  in 
gratitude  he  himself  was  the  King's,  and  did  ever,  as  much  as  in  him 
lay,  influence  him  to  his  true  interest." 

It  SO  happened  that  William  did  not  like  servile  acknowl- 
edgments and  appreciated  the  attitude  of  Penn,  though  the 
great  Quaker  was  the  butt  of  fierce  attacks  and  denounced  as 
a  base  enemy  of  Protestantism.  But  the  facts  remain  that 
when  he  went  for  trial  no  witness  had  the  temerity  to  appear 
against  him  and  he  was  discharged  innocent. 

For  years  Penn  had  been  endeavoring  to  obtain  from 
James  the  passage  of  the  Toleration  Act,  but  now  it  came 
from  William.  Penn  was  continually  accused  of  plotting 
for  the  return  of  James,  and  the  climax  came  when  he 
heard  that  he  was  to  be  arrested  after  preaching  the  funeral 
sermon  of  George  Fox.  Weary  and  worn  out  by  constant 
attack,  he  now  wisely  dropped  out  of  sight.  But  even  this 
did  not  allay  suspicion,  and  he  was  constantly  connected 
with  rumors  of  the  return  of  James.    That  these  had  their 


5i6 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


effect  on  the  mind  of  the  Protestant  king  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  in  October,  1692,  Penn's  province  of  Pennsylvania 
was  taken  from  him— a  heavy  blow  to  all  his  hopes  and 
ambitions.  The  excuse  was,  that  the  unarmed  Pennsyl- 
vanians  should  not  be  exposed  to  France,  Holland,  Spain 
or  any  other  possible  Christian  enemies.  Louis  XIV 
was  supposed  to  have  cast  longing  eyes  upon  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania;  hence  King  William,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  demands  of  the  anti-Quaker  element  in  Penn- 
sylvania, including  David  Lloyd,  Penn's  friend,  determined 
to  arm  the  colony  so  that  it  could  protect  itself  in  case  of 
war.  The  easiest  way  to  accomplish  this  was  to  remove 
William  Penn,  the  governor,  and  in  March,  1693,  he  was 
deposed  from  office,  and  his  great  dominion  was  taken  from 
him — a  crushing  blow  not  only  to  himself,  but  to  the  thou- 
sands of  Quakers  in  the  colony. 

These  were  dark  days  for  the  colony.  Penn,  denounced 
as  William  the  Papist,  practically  ruined  by  having  paid 
many  of  the  expenses  of  the  colony  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
and  unable  to  collect  his  just  dues,  was  crushed  and  disheart- 
ened, to  which  the  apostacy  of  Keith  (referred  to  elsewhere) 
and  the  refraction  of  numerous  managers  and  deputies, 
added  no  inconsiderably. 

Penn,  still  in  concealment,  at  once  opened  up  negotiations 
to  obtain  his  rights,  and  to  remove  the  unjust  but  plausible 
suspicions.  That  the  king  wished  to  get  rid  of  Penn  is 
evident,  as  he  doubtless  asked  Lord  Rochester  to  enquire  of 
Penn  whether  he  would  leave  the  country  and  go  to  Penn- 
sylvania if  it  was  restored  to  him.  To  this  the  manly  Quaker 
replied :    "I  will  not  receive  my  liberty  to  go  as  a  condition 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  517 


to  go  there,  and  be  there  as  here  looked  upon  as  an  exarticled 
exile." 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1693  the  king  became  more 
friendly,  and  the  government  evidently  concluded  that  his 
"treason"  was  "temperamental"  only,  and  that  he  was 
merely  a  staunch  friend  of  James.  In  any  event,  the  king, 
in  August,  1694,  returned  to  Penn  his  province  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, which,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  taken  from  him  on 
the  excuse  that  "unarmed,"  it  was  likely  to  be  taken  by  the 
French. 

Penn's  first  wife,  Gulielma  Maria  Springett,  whom  he 
married  in  1672,  died  February  23,  1693.  After  a  remark- 
able period  of  successful  preaching  in  England  he  married, 
in  1696,  Hannah  Callowhill  of  Bristol.  By  Gulielma  he 
had  seven  children,  three  of  whom  survived  her — Springett, 
William  and  Letetia.  The  former  died  young.  William 
was  dissipated  and  a  rake,  Letetia  married  William  Aubrey. 
By  his  second  wife  he  had  six  children — John,  Thomas, 
Hannah,  Margaret,  Richard  and  Dennis.  Four — John, 
Thom.as,  Margaret  and  Richard — became  proprietors  of 
Pennsylvania,  none  of  the  children  of  the  first  wife  inherit- 
ing any  of  the  American  property. 

For  six  years  following  his  last  marriage  Penn  wrote  and 
•preached  in  England.  In  1699  he  again  sailed  for  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  first  time  in  fifteen  years,  and  now  found  a  people 
who  numbered  at  least  twenty  thousand.  Pennsylvania  had 
had  a  stormy  time,  and  its  government  had  been  repeatedly 
changed,  much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  people.  Penn 
was  well  received,  and  with  his  secretary,  James  Logan,  at 
once  took  a  hand  in  affairs,  the  latter  becoming  a  shining 
light  in  the  community.    They  settled  in  Philadelphia  in 


5i8  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


the  house  of  Edward  Shippen,  then  moved  to  a  slate-roofed 
residence  on  Second  street,  north  of  Walnut.  Here  his  son 
John  was  born.  In  the  spring  he  went  to  his  country  seat, 
Pennsbury,  twenty  miles  up  the  river.  When  he  attended 
the  meetings  of  the  Provincial  Council  he  traveled  down  the 
river  in  a  six-oared  barge.  Up  to  this  time  Penn,  through  the 
proprietor,  had  expended  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  paying  the  bills  and  salaries  of  the  Colony,  and  he  could 
not  induce  the  Assembly  to  make  it  up.  This,  and  the  fact 
that  his  quit  rents  and  sales  were  slow,  tended  to  embarrass 
him  still  more. 

In  1701  the  rumor  became  current  that  the  home  govern- 
ment purposed  to  change  the  proprietory  governments  into 
Royal  Colonies,  and  he  decided  to  go  to  England.  Before 
sailing  he  gave  the  people  a  new  constitution,  which  proved 
eminently  satisfactory.  The  many  biographers  of  Penn  have 
sketched  with  elaborate  detail  every  step  of  his  career,  and 
it  is  but  necessary  here  to  give  the  essentials,  the  important 
steps  in  his  life  as  they  influenced  the  Quakers.  The  Quaker 
Assembly  voted  Penn  ten  thousand  dollars  for  expenses  in 
the  interests  of  the  Colony.  But  this  was  soon  expended  and 
his  troubles  rapidly  accumulated,  and  in  an  extraordinary 
way.  Matters  came  to  such  a  point  that  he  tried  to  sell  his 
government  to  the  Crown,  but  was  not  successful.  He  was 
embroiled  in  further  trouble  by  a  manager  or  steward,  Phillip 
Ford,  who  took  advantage  of  him.  At  his  death  his  widow 
and  son  had  the  temerity  to  claim  that  they  were  proprietors, 
and  that  Penn  had  deeded  the  province  to  the  steward.  The 
facts  were,  Penn  had  been  outrageously  deceived  on  various 
occasions,  but  very  foolishly  gave  Ford  a  deed  in  fee  simple 
of  the  province  as  security  for  money  said  by  Ford  to  be  due 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  519 


him.  As  Fisher  says,  "Penn  was  juggled  out  of  his  province 
by  a  bookkeeper."  Perm  was  arrested  in  this  case  in  London, 
and  for  nine  months  kept  in  the  Fleet  prison,  the  Fords 
having  secured  a  judgment  against  him  for  $15,000  rent  in 
arrears.  He  was  arrested  while  at  meeting  in  Grace-church 
street. 

Perm  succeeded  in  mortgaging  Pennsylvania  and  paying 
the  Fords  the  amount.  The  friends  who  aided  Penn  at  this 
time  insisted  on  his  discharging  Deputy-Governor  Evans, 
and  they  had  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  his  consent,  as  one 
of  his  peculiarities  was  his  attachment  to  his  friends,  even  if 
they  were  proven  his  enemies. 

Penn,  now  free  and  in  possession  again,  sent  out  to  the 
Colony  Colonel  Charles  Gookin  as  a  deputy  governor  in  place 
of  Evans.  He  always  hoped  to  return  to  America,  but  the 
difficulty  of  settling  his  many  affairs  at  home  always  stood 
in  the  way,  and  he  passed  the  last  years  of  his  life  near 
Brentford  and  Ruscombe. 

During  this  time  he  was  endeavoring  to  sell  his  govern- 
ment to  the  Crown,  with  the  provision  that  the  Quakers  must 
be  protected  and  religious  liberty  assured.  The  deed  was 
ready  to  be  signed.  Five  hundred  dollars  had  been  paid 
down,  and  he  was  to  receive  $90,750  for  the  great  province 
of  Pennsylvania,  just  ten  thousand  dollars  more  than  he  had 
originally  paid  for  the  virgin  soil.  But  now,  in  1712,  for 
the  second  time  he  was  stricken  with  paralysis,  and  by  a 
lucky  clause  the  great  property  remained  in  the  family  and 
continued  so  until  the  war  of  the  Revolution  in  1776.  Trade 
revived  as  peace  came,  and  the  property  became  of  vast  value 
and  the  children  of  the  second  wife  wealthy  men. 

Penn  lived  several  years  after  his  illness,  declining  slowly, 


520 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


and  on  July  30,  1718,  he  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-four 
years.  He  lies  at  Jordan's  meeting-house,  not  far  from 
London,  to-day  the  Mecca  of  Friends  and  Americans  who  are 
loyal  to  his  memory,  and  who  honor  him  without  reservation 
as  an  upright  and  faithful  gentleman. 

The  attitude  of  William  Penn  when  charged  by  his 
enemies  with  plotting  against  King  William  tells  the  story 
of  a  manly,  courageous  patriot.  Not  for  a  moment  did  he 
deny  his  warm  friendship  for  the  deposed  monarch;  not  for 
a  moment  did  he  seek  to  protect  himself  by  deserting  his 
old  comrade.  It  was  with  Penn, — The  king  is  dead,  God 
save  the  king  I  Not  that  I  owe  allegience  to  him  now  when 
he  is  not  king,  but  he  was  my  friend.  I  am  loyal  to  that 
friendship  alone  which  descended  to  me  from  my  father; 
but  you.  Sir,  are  now  the  king  of  England,  and  I  am  first 
of  all  a  loyal,  patriotic  Englishman,  and  my  service  is  to  the 
King.  This  was  William  Penn's  acknowledgement,  and  it 
did  him  honor,  as  a  true  gentleman ;  any  other  attitude  would 
have  been  impossible  from  the  Quaker  standpoint. 

Penn's  intimacy  with  James  was  so  close  that  it  might  well 
have  fallen  under  the  ban  of  suspicion,  and  it  led  to  many 
interesting  occurrences.  Before  the  deposition  of  James, 
John  Locke,  the  philosopher  and  intimate  of  Penn,  found  it 
convenient  to  go  to  Holland,  during  the  Monmouth  insurrec- 
tion of  '65,  as  his  friend  and  patron.  Lord  Shaftsbury,  was 
identified  as  a  partisan  of  the  Pretender.  The  suggestion 
that  he  was  disloyal  was  a  cowardly  intimation  from  the 
enemies  of  both.  Penn,  knowing  this  and  Locke's  innocence, 
sent  word  to  his  friend,  assuring  him  of  the  king's  friend- 
ship, pardon  or  amnesty,  and  bade  him  return  to  England. 
Locke  replied  that  "he  had  no  occasion  for  a  pardon,  having 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  521 


committed  no  crimes,"  and  refused  to  return.  Penn  made 
no  reply,  biding  his  time,  which  came  in  1691,  when  he,  in 
turn,  was  under  suspicion  of  aiding  King  James,  and  living 
very  quietly  in  retirement. 

Locke  now  was  in  high  favor  with  King  William,  and 
calling  to  mind  the  good  offices  of  his  friend  Penn  when  he 
was  in  exile,  hunted  him  up  in  his  retreat  in  London,  recalled 
the  incident,  and  in  turn  assured  his  old  university  friend  of 
a  pardon,  and  the  good  will  of  William.  It  can  well  be 
imagined  that  William  Penn  met  John  Locke  with  a  naive 
pretense  at  dignity,  as  he  declined  the  offer,  with  the  remark 
that  "The  innocent  need  no  pardon."  Nevertheless  John 
Locke  used  his  good  offices  for  Penn,  as  nothing  but  a  friend 
at  Court  could  have  protected  Penn,  an  outspoken  and 
valued  friend  of  the  deposed  Papist  King,  from  greater 
outrage. 

In  all  the  troubled  history  of  the  Quakers  in  the  Colony, 
during  changes  of  party,  the  Quakers  were  always  loyal  to 
the  government.  They  never  plotted  against  it,  were  never 
shown  to  be  active  partisans;  their  sole  objective  was  reform, 
and  their  warnings  and  teachings  were  directed  to  all  the 
world,  irrespective  of  party  or  king.  This  was  Penn's  doc- 
trine, who  said :  "Meddle  not  with  government ;  never  speak 
of  it;  let  others  say  or  do  as  they  please.  I  have  said  little 
to  you  about  distributing  justice,  or  being  just  in  power  or 
government,  for  I  should  desire  you  should  never  be  con- 
cerned therein."  Morality,  peace,  liberty,  justice  were  words 
the  Quakers  never  even  lost  sight  of.  Sunday  was  not  alone 
the  Lord's  day,  but  every  day  from  the  first  to  the  seventh 
was  lived  well  and  faithfully  to  man  and  God. 

The  attitude  of  the  Friends  to  the  Indians  has  given  them 


522  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


widespread  fame  and  honor.  There  is  hardly  a  dealing  with 
the  Indians  from  the  early  days  to  the  twentieth  century  that 
does  not  carry  a  reflection  in  it  to  the  white  man;  but  this 
cannot  be  said  of  the  Quaker.  He  treated  the  Indians  fairly. 
He  paid  them,  kept  his  word,  treated  them  with  respect,  did 
not  sell  them  liquor,  and  in  no  one  instance  over-reached 
them.  In  many  colonies  it  was  the  policy  of  certain  rene- 
gade whites  to  intoxicate  the  Indian,  to  obtain  his  land  or 
over-reach  him.  In  Pennsylvania,  when  there  was  a  trial  of 
an  Indian  by  jury,  Penn  saw  to  it  that  it  was  composed  of 
red  men  and  white  men,  equally  divided.  Penn  could  have 
made  a  vast  fortune  by  allowing  certain  men  to  deal  exclu- 
sively with  the  Indians,  but  he  refused  all  such  offers,  to  his 
eternal  honor. 

The  Friends  were  ever  solicitous  of  the  welfare  of  the 
Indians,  and  as  the  country  was  gradually  settled  up,  the 
Quakers,  as  John  Woolman,  Zebulon  Heston,  John  Parish 
and  others,  followed  them  up,  and  then  when  what  might 
be  called  the  Indian  line  had  been  pushed  one  hundred  or 
more  miles  west  of  the  Ohio,  the  Indians  sent  word  to  Phila- 
delphia asking  that  some  Friend  might  come  to  them  to  give 
them  religious  instruction.  In  1791  a  great  Seneca  chief 
visited  Philadelphia  and  asked  the  Friends  to  undertake  the 
education  of  his  son  and  several  other  Indian  boys.  During 
the  Indian  war  of  1792  the  Quakers  endeavored  to  stop  it, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  Indians,  Quakers  attended  the  treaty 
at  Sandusky.  During  the  treaty  of  Canandaigua,  in  1794, 
the  Friends  were  represented  by  William  Savary,  who  met 
sixteen  hundred  Indians,  and  it  was  mainly  due  to  the 
Quakers  that  peace  was  declared.  The  Friends  at  their 
request  appointed  men  to  live  with  them,  and  began  to  teach 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  523 


them  agriculture  and  carpentering.  They  opened  schools  for 
the  native  children;  young  Indian  girls  were  taken  into 
Quaker  families  and  taught  the  domestic  arts  in  many  lines. 

In  1798  the  Senecas  also  requested  Quaker  teachers  to  join 
them,  and  three  Friends  were  appointed  and  carried  on  a 
plan  of  practical  education  at  Genesanghota.  The  Friends 
expended  large  sums  on  the  Indians ;  but  their  work  was 
always  interfered  with  by  avaricious  whites  who  were  con- 
tinually trying  to  force  the  Indians  west.  This  was  espe- 
cially true  in  the  case  of  the  Allegheny  Reservation,  and  was 
the  beginning  of  the  raids  on  the  Indians,  against  which  the 
Quakers  always  protested  and  which  were  a  disgrace  to  the 
administration  of  Indian  affairs. 

In  1819  the  Quakers  memoralized  Congress,  saying: 
"With  deep  concern  we  have  observed  a  disposition  spread- 
ing in  the  United  States  to  consider  the  Indians  as  an  incum- 
brance to  the  community,  and  their  residence  within  our  bor- 
ders as  an  obstruction  to  the  progressive  improvements  and 
opulence  of  the  nation." 

In  1818  the  Friends  opened  an  Indian  School  at  Cattarau- 
gus, and  in  1820  one  at  Tunesassah,  under  the  care  of  a 
Friend.  Never  did  the  Quakers  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
'the  Indians  were  the  legitimate  owners  of  the  soil.  The 
Catholic  Duke  of  York  laughed  at  his  friend  William  Penn 
for  paying  the  Indians  after  he  had  given  up  his  eighty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  Pennsylvania;  but  this  was  always  the 
policy  of  the  Quakers,  not  to  avoid  trouble,  but  because  it 
was  right  and  a  matter  of  personal  honor.  They  spent  large 
sums  on  the  education  of  the  Indians  because  they  consid- 
ered it  a  moral  obligation.  This  care  of  the  Indians  has 
never  ceased.    It  has  been  the  chief  object  of  the  Mohonk 


524 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


Conferences  and  of  many  Quaker  societies,  especially  of  the 
New  England  Yearly  Meeting. 

The  treatment  of  the  American  Indian  has  been  a  blot  on 
the  American  honor;  but  the  efforts  of  the  Quakers  have 
greatly  mitigated  many  of  the  more  than  shameful  outrages. 

In  1712  the  Friends  made  an  attempt  through  the  Legis- 
lature to  stop  the  selling  of  slaves  in  Pennsylvania. 
William  Southeby  headed  the  movement,  and  soon  after 
the  Yearly  Meeting  took  up  the  matter  and  made  a  vigorous 
campaign  against  it. 

I  once  saw  a  slaver  captured  by  an  American  frigate 
brought  into  a  Southern  port  and  the  helpless  negroes  turned 
into  a  barracoon  on  the  beach  like  cattle.  Little  wonder  the 
Friends  early  resented  slavery  in  America.  Labor  was  scarce 
in  the  early  colonies,  and  Naragansett  Bay  became  a  fruitful 
field  for  the  Guinea  slaves.  In  1717  the  Yearly  Meeting 
at  Newport  took  the  matter  up  in  the  following  minute : 

"A  weighty  concern  being  on  this  Meeting  concerning  the  importing 
and  keeping  slaves,  this  Meeting,  therefore,  refers  to  it  in  the  consid- 
eration of  Friends  everywhere  to  waite  for  ye  wisdom  of  God  how  to 
discharge  themselves  in  that  weighty  affair,  and  it  desires  it  may  be 
brought  up  from  our  Monthly  and  Quarterly  Meetings  to  our  next 
Yearly  Meeting,  and  also  yt  merchants  do  write  their  correspondents 
in  the  islands  and  elsewhere  to  discourage  their  sending  any  more 
(slaves)  in  order  to  be  sold  by  Friends  here." 

Ten  years  later  the  same  Meeting  issued  the  following 
minute : 

"It  is  the  sense  of  this  Meeting,  that  the  importation  of  Negroes 
from  their  native  country  and  relations  is  not  a  commendable  nor 
allowable  practice  and  that  practice  is  censured  by  this  Meeting." 

Frequent  reference  to  slaves  are  found  in  the  minutes  of 
the  Sandwich  Meeting,  and  several  Friends  were  disowned 
for  beating  slaves.   In  1711  the  following  minute  appears: 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  525 


"A  paper  being  presented  to  this  Meeting  from  the  Friend  who  was 
disowned  for  unmercifully  beating  her  Negro,  wherein  she  desires  to 
come  into  unity  with  Friends,  and  ye  sense  of  this  Meeting  is  that  she 
should  wait  until  Friends  have  a  sense  that  she  is  still  to  be  accepted, 
and  Eleazer  Slocum  and  William  Soule  are  appointed  to  give  her  ye 
mind  of  the  Meeting." 

Thomas  Hazard  of  South  Kingstown,  R.  I.,  made  a  vigor- 
ous stand  against  slavery,  and  gradually  in  1743-4  f^ll 
into  disrepute  as  the  following  minutes  show : 

"4/9/1743. — It  being  represented  by  the  Quarterly  Meeting  of  Rhode 
Island  that  the  practice  of  keeping  slaves  is  a  matter  of  uneasiness  to 
many  concerned  Friends,  and  the  minutes  formerly  made  by  this  Meet- 
ing being  also  considered,  it  is  agreed  by  this  Meeting  that  we  request 
by  our  Epistles  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  in  Pennsylvania  an 
account  of  what  they  have  done  in  the  matter." 

"4/7/1744. — By  the  Epistle  we  have  received  from  Philadelphia  con- 
cerning slaves,  this  Meeting  is  encouraged  to  revive  and  recommend 
to  Friends  the  careful  observation  of  the  minute  of  this  Meeting  made 
in  1717  concerning  that  matter,  and  that  they  also  refrain  from  buying 
them  when  imported,  and  to  make  return  by  the  Epstles  from  the  sev- 
eral Quarterly  Meetings  how  the  same  is  observed." 

In  1 760  John  Woolman  came  to  New  England  again  and 
worked  vigorously  to  create  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  abol- 
ishment of  slavery.  In  1773  the  Yearly  Meeting  issued  the 
following  : 

"In  regard  to  the  Query  from  Rhode  Island  Quarterly  Meeting,  pro- 
posing the  freeing  of  all  slaves,  it  is  our  sense  and  judgment  that  Truth 
not  only  requires  the  young  of  capacity  and  ability,  but  likewise  the 
aged  and  impotent,  and  all  in  a  state  of  infancy  and  nonage,  among 
Friends  to  be  discharged  and  set  free  from  a  state  of  slavery  that  we 
do  no  more  claim  property  in  the  human  race  as  we  do  in  the  brutes 
that  perish." 

Soon  after  this  Stephen  Hopkins  was  disowned  for  hold- 
ing a  woman  slave,  and  Moses  Brown,  founder  of  Brown 
University  and  the  Friends  School  at  Providence,  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Hopkins,  set  all  his  slaves  at  liberty  and 


526  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 

joined  the  Quakers.  Singularly  enough,  the  bill  the  Rhode 
Island  Legislature  passed  in  1774  forbidding  slavery  was 
designed  and  fathered  by  the  disowned  Stephen  Hopkins, 
one  of  the  distinguished  men  of  his  time.  This  law  was  the 
result  of  the  following  minute  adopted  by  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing of  Rhode  Island  in  1774: 

"This  Meeting  manifesting  a  concern  that  the  liberty  of  the  Africans 
might  be  fully  restored,  we  appoint  our  Friends  Thomas  Hazard, 
Ezekiel  Comstock,  Thomas  Lapham,  Jr.,  Stephen  Hoxie,  Joseph 
Congdon,  Isaac  Lawton  and  Moses  Farnum,  a  committee  to  use  their 
influence  at  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island,  or 
with  the  members  thereof,  that  such  laws  may  be  made  as  will  tend 
to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  to  get  such  laws  repealed  as  in  any  way 
encourages  it." 

While  George  Fox  protested  against  slavery  early  in  his 
career,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  slavery  existed  in  America 
long  afterward,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  Quakers  of  New  Jersey  owned  over  eleven  hundred 
negroes.  The  English  law  permitted  it.  The  Quakers  were 
the  first  to  free  their  slaves,  and  the  beginning  of  the  end 
came  in  1758,  when  John  Woolman  made  his  famous 
appeal.  In  1800  there  were  12,442  slaves  in  New  Jersey, 
but  thanks  to  the  Quaker,  John  Woolman,  Friends  had 
almost  invariably  given  them  liberty. 

John  Woolman  aroused  the  New  York  Friends  against 
slavery,  and  in  1776  the  Meeting  began  to  disown  Friends 
who  owned  slaves,  and  the  practice  was  soon  abolished. 
William  Penn  was  a  slave  owner,  but  when  he  went  to  Eng- 
land in  1701  he  wrote:  "I  give  my  blacks  their  freedom." 
Yet  long  before  this  the  Keithans,  in  1693,  declared  against 
slavery.  In  1711  the  Friends  of  Chester  opposed  it.  In 
1712  a  Friend,  William  Southeby,  endeavored  to  influence 
the  Legislature  to  abolish  slavery  in  Pennsylvania.  They 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  527 

did  pass  a  law  placing  a  duty  of  one  hundred  dollars  on 
every  slave,  but  the  Queen  repealed  it. 

The  Friends  continued  their  anti-slavery  crusade  until 
1774,  when  nearly  all  the  Friends  had  liberated  their  slaves. 
Then  the  Quakers  began  to  disown  members  holding  them 
without  reserve,  and  the  end  of  slavery  among  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Quakers  came. 

In  early  days  John  Edmundson  had  waged  war  against 
slavery  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  with  little  success.  In 
1760  Southern  Friends  began  to  awaken  to  the  enormity  of 
the  trade.  Wenlock  Christison,  the  martyr,  was  a  slave 
owner  and  dealer.  He  bought  white  emigrant  slaves  when 
sold  for  debt,  and  owned  black  slaves,  the  custom  being  so 
common  that  apparently  it  had  never  occurred  to  him  that 
it  was  a  crime  against  humanity.  Samuel  Fothergill  of 
England  and  John  Woolman  in  1757  aroused  the  Southern 
Friends.  Fothergill  said,  with  deep  emotion:  "The  price 
of  blood  is  upon  that  province  (Maryland).  Directly  the 
question  was  raised  some  Friends  gave  their  slaves  liberty 
and  began  the  crusade.  The  end  came  slowly  in  the  South, 
but  after  the  Revolution  practically  all  Quakers  in  the 
Southern  states  had  released  their  slaves.  Whittier's  "Penn- 
sylvania Pilgrim,"  Pastorious,  will  be  remembered  as  a 
Quaker  who  denounced  slavery.  In  the  year  1 688  Pastorious 
drew  up  a  memorial  against  slaveholding,  which  was  adopted 
by  the  Germantown  Friends  and  sent  up  to  the  Monthly 
Meeting,  and  thence  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  at  Philadelphia. 
It  is  noteworthy  as  the  first  protest  made  by  a  religious  body 
against  Negro  Slavery.  The  original  document  was  discov- 
ered in  1844  by  Nathan  Kite,  and  published  in  "The 
Friend."   It  is  a  bold  and  direct  appeal  to  the  best  instincts 


528  WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA 


of  the  heart.  "Have  not,"  he  asks,  "these  negroes  as  much 
right  to  fight  for  their  freedom  as  you  have  to  keeep  them 
slaves?' 

''And  oft  Pastorious  and  the  meek  old  man 
Argued  as  Quaker  and  as  Lutheran, 
Ending  in  Christian  love  as  they  began." 
***** 

While  the  Quakers  were  fighting  there  existed  a  peculiar 
enslaving  just  before  the  Revolution  which  it  was  difficult 
to  break  up.  Many  of  the  immigrants  who  came  out  to  the 
Colony  were  of  two  classes — indented  servants  who  had 
bound  themselves  for  a  term  of  years  under  contract,  and 
"free  willers,"  or  redemptionists,  who  had  stipulated  with 
the  captain  of  the  ship  that  in  lieu  of  their  passage  money 
he  could  sell  them  to  the  highest  bidder  on  their  arrival,  thus 
recouping  himself.  From  copies  of  these  agreements  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society  it  is  seen  that  the  usual  price 
for  a  three-years'  service  was  £21  and  two  suits  of  clothes 
a  grubbing  hoe,  a  weeding  hoe  and  an  axe.  These  people, 
as  a  rule,  were  not  acceptable  to  the  Friends,  yet  a  number 
of  Irish  Friends  were  so  poor  and  so  anxious  to  come  to  this 
country  that  they  pocketed  their  pride  and  came  in  this  way. 
In  the  Pennsylvania  Messenger  for  January  18,  1774,  is 
found  the  following :  "Germans — We  are  now  offering  fifty 
Germans,  just  arrived,  to  be  seen  at  the  Golden  Swan,  kept 
by  the  Widow  Kreider.  The  lot  includes  schoolmasters, 
artisans,  peasants,  boys  and  girls  of  various  ages,  all  to  serve 
for  payment  of  passage."  D.  Von  Bulo  writes  in  a  Boston 
paper,  1797:  "It  is  easy  to  sell  the  farmers,  but  there  are 
often  men  whom  it  is  not  so  easy  to  dispose  of,  e.  g.,  officers 
and  scholars.  I  have  seen  a  Russian  captain  offered  for 
eight  days  for  sale  and  not  a  bid  made.   He  had  absolutely 


WILLIAM  PENN  IN  AMERICA  529 


no  market  value.  He  was  finally  offered  at  a  discount  of 
fifty  per  cent.,  and  walked  about  the  town  by  the  captain 
to  show  his  good  parts.  But  this  was  no  avail,  and  at  last, 
in  desperation,  the  captain  sold  him  for  little  or  nothing  as 
a  village  schoolmaster."  Sculcleff  says,  that  as  late  as  1804, 
"I  saw  many  families,  particularly  in  Pennsylvania,  of  great 
respectability,  both  in  our  society  and  amongst  others  who 
had  come  over  themselves  as  redemptionists,  or  were  children 
of  such.  "This  method  has  been  employed  in  late  years  to 
secure  cheap  imported  labor. 


34 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY. 

In  the  years  following  the  arrival  of  the  Christopher 
Holder  party  of  1656,  and  the  Penn  colonization  scheme  of 
1680,  there  was  a  constant  migration  of  Friends  from  the 
central  points.  Long  before  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania, 
Christopher  Holder  and  Josiah  Cole  and  others  had  traveled 
through  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  their  reports  were  the  means  of  creating  a  con- 
stant westward  and  southern  movement.  This  was  partic- 
ularly true  of  New  England.  The  constant  ill-treatment, 
and  the  hope  of  a  betterment  of  physical  conditions,  induced 
Quakers  to  migrate.  Nantucket,  as  we  have  seen  was  almost 
decimated,  and  to-day  the  names  of  Macy,  Coffin,  Starbuck 
and  others  are  found  all  through  the  South  and  West,  the 
descendants  of  the  famous  Quaker  pioneers  of  Nantucket, 
who  by  a  rigorous  system  of  elimination  accomplished  their 
own  undoing,  so  far  as  Nantucket  was  concerned.  New 
Jersey  was  settled  by  whites  as  early  as  1630,  but  the  first 
definite  band  of  Quakers  in  this  state  settled  on  the  Raritan 
in  1663.  Soon  after  this,  in  1666,  Pearsons  appeared,  and 
settlements  were  made  in  Piscataway,  Woodbridge  and 
Newark.  A  strong  family  of  Lynn  Quakers,  the  Bassetts, 
sent  a  delegation  to  New  Jersey  early  in  its  history,  and 
towns  and  settlements  took  form,  some  becoming  important 
centers,  as  Shrewsbury,  largely  settled  from  Massachusetts. 

The  region  now  so  crossed  and  re-crossed  by  roads  and 
railroads  between  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  was  then  a 
trackless  wilderness,  over  which  the  pioneer  Quakers  passed, 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


531 


unarmed,  except  with  faith — an  extraordinary  weapon  with 
which  to  pacify  the  American  savage,  the  original  owner  of 
the  soil.  The  old  "Burlington  Path"  of  the  Quakers  and 
others  became  well  known,  and  as  early  as  1695  stop- 
ping places  were  to  be  found,  crude  inns,  which  sheltered 
George  Fox,  Josiah  Cole,  Christopher  Holder  and  other 
Friends  of  the  early  and  later  days. 

The  Dutch  held  New  Jersey  until  1664,  when  the  English 
took  it  by  force,  and  the  vast  region  between  the  Hudson  and 
the  Delaware  was  given  over  to  Sir  George  Carteret  and 
Lord  Berkley.  The  former  was  Governor  of  the  Island  of 
Jersey  at  this  time,  and  in  his  honor  the  new  possession  was 
called  New  Jersey.  Carteret  and  Berkley  were  interesting 
characters.  They  were  indebted  to  their  friend,  the  Duke 
of  York,  for  the  large  tract.  Lord  Berkley's  brother  was 
Governor  of  Virginia,  and  in  1674  was  Ambassador  to 
France.  Carteret  was  a  cavalier,  courtier,  man  of  fashion,  a 
clever  man  of  the  world;  a  particular  friend  of  Samuel 
Pepys,  who  often  refers  to  him,  and  being  more  or  less  of 
a  tody,  doubtless  appreciated  his  gallant  friend.  Sir  George, 
the  scion  of  the  old  and  distinguished  Norman  family  de 
Carteret  of  St.  Owen. 

In  1673  the  Dutch  re-captured  New  Jersey,  but  a  new 
treaty  was  made  by  which  New  Netherlands  again  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  British,  and  Lord  Berkley,  now  an  old  man, 
transferred  his  interest  to  John  Fenwick  and  Edward 
Billinge  for  five  thousand  dollars.  Thus  in  1674,  what  is 
now  New  Jersey,  was  owned  by  two  Quakers,  as  Pennsyl- 
vania was  later  owned  by  William  Penn. 

In  all  probability,  this  was  a  movement  in  the  interests  of 
the  Society  of  Friends  at  Large,  as  ultimately,  as  we  have 


532        THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


seen,  the  property  was  transferred  to  the  hands  of  William 
Penn  as  an  arbitrator  between  the  two  Quaker  owners,  who 
became  involved  in  a  disagreeable  contention  regarding  their 
respective  rights.  Many  Englishmen  had  bought  property 
in  west  New  Jersey,  and  in  1677  two  large  companies  of 
Friends,  one  from  London  and  one  from  Yorkshire,  sailed 
for  the  promised  land,  with  the  blessing  of  the  King,  who, 
it  happened,  was  yachting  in  the  Thames  at  the  hour  of  sail- 
ing. It  can  also  be  imagined  that  his  Majesty  had  no  keen 
regrets  at  the  loss  of  Quakers. 

The  two  hundred  and  thirty  Quakers  landed  from  the  Kent 
on  the  Delaware,  and  formed  a  settlement  to  which  they 
finally  gave  the  name  of  Burlington.  They  treated  with  the 
Indians,  bought  lands  from  them  in  an  honorable  way,  after 
the  Quaker  fashion,  many  non-Quakers  later  repudiating 
them,  recognizing  the  rights  of  the  English  as  sole  owners. 
Many  ships  now  came,  landing  Quakers  at  Salem  and  Bur- 
lington, and  in  1681  it  was  estimated  that  the  Quakers  num- 
bered fourteen  hundred.  They,  doubtless,  remembered  the 
adjuration  of  Fox:  "My  friends  that  are  gone  or  are  going 
over  to  plant  and  make  outward  plantations  in  America, 
keep  your  own  plantations  in  your  hearts  with  the  spirit 
and  power  of  God,  that  your  own  vines  and  lilies  be  not 
hurt." 

Carteret  retained  East  Jersey,  and  West  Jersey  became  a 
Quaker  colony  on  lines  unquestionably  laid  down  by 
William  Penn,  who  was  the  author  of  the  great  charter  of 
New  Jersey;  though,  doubtless,  many  who  had  visited  the 
region  and  knew  it  well,  as  Josiah  Cole,  Burnyeat,  Holder, 
Fox,  Edmundson,  Gove  and  others,  were  consulted.  We  can 
well  conceive  that  William  Penn's  friends,  John  Locke  and 


r 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


533 


Algernon  Sidney  were  also  his  advisers.  Trials  and  tribula- 
tions without  end  were  the  experiences  of  these  aliens;  but 
few  were  discouraged,  their  numbers  being  continually  aug- 
mented. 

The  first  meeting-house  was  the  canopy  of  the  trees,  as 
the  "Woodhouse"  party  held  their  meetings  in  Christopher 
Holder's  Hollow  at  Sandwich,  the  first  meeting  in  America. 
The  first  house  of  worship  was  made  out  of  sail-cloth,  and 
when  a  log  house  or  home  was  built  it  was  used  until  a 
meeting-house  could  be  erected. 

Among  the  first  ministers  were  Thomas  Olin  and  William 
Peachy.  Seven  months  from  the  first  settlement  of  Burling- 
ton, the  first  Monthly  Meeting  was  established,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  minute: 

"Since,  by  the  good  providence  of  God,  many  Friends  with  their 
families  have  transported  themselves  into  this  province  of  West  Jer- 
sey, the  said  Friends  in  these  upper  parts  have  found  it  needful,  accord- 
ing to  the  practice  in  the  place  we  came  from,  to  settle  Monthly 
Meetings,  for  the  well  ordering  of  the  affairs  of  the  church;  it  was 
agreed  that  accordingly  it  should  be  done,  the  15th  of  the  Fifth  Month, 
1678." 

Here  in  the  wilderness,  surrounded  by  savages,  these 
gentle  folk  established  themselves.  The  colonies  grew  rap- 
i'dly.  The  Burlington  Quarterly  Meeting  was  established 
in  i68o  and  in  i68l  a  Yearly  Meeting  was  discussed  and 
carried  into  effect  on  the  sixth  month  following.  There  were 
now  meetings  at  Newton  Creek,  a  Monthly  Meeting  in 
Cooper's  and  Woodbury  Creek,  and  a  Monthly  Meeting  was 
formed  of  Salem  and  Newton.  Meetings  sprang  up  at  Ran- 
cocas,  Shackamaxon,  Chester,  Hoorkills  and  Newcastle.  The 
first  epistle  sent  from  New  Jersey  to  the  London  Yearly 
Meeting  is  dated  at  Burlington,  i68o,  and  the  names  signed 


534        THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


to  it  are  well  represented  in  West  Jersey  today.  Among 
them  are  Shotwell,  Bassett,  Wardell,  Budd,  Peachy, 
Brightown,  Gardiner,  Powell,  Bourton,  Woolston,  Pum- 
phrey,  Ellis,  Jennings,  Satterthwaite,  Coips,  Butler,  Butcher, 
Grubb,  Leeds,  Stacey,  Barton,  Hollinshed,  Lambert,  Kin- 
sey,  Pleft,  Cooper,  Shin,  Billes,  Hewlings,  Fretwell,  Eares, 
Clark,  Paine,  Arnold.  Many  of  these  families  later  moved 
to  Pennsylvania  and  established  their  names  in  Philadelphia, 
where  they  are  well  known  to-day  as  staunch  Friends. 

New  ministers  were  continually  coming  to  the  Colony,  as 
John  Butcher  of  London,  Samuel  Jennings,  John  Skein.  In 
1679  Sir  George  Carteret  died,  and  it  was  found  that  his  will 
contained  a  clause  directing  the  sale  of  East  Jersey.  The 
colonization  of  West  Jersey  was  eminently  successful.  The 
region  was  populated  in  leaps  and  bounds.  Vast  areas  of 
land  were  sold  and  the  colonists  appeared  to  be  so  well  satis- 
fied that  a  number  of  Friends,  including  William  Penn, 
Robert  West,  Thomas  Rudyard,  Samuel  Groome,  Thomas 
Hart,  Richard  Mew,  Thomas  Wilcox,  Ambrose  Rigg,  John 
Hayword,  Hugh  Hartshorne,  Clement  Plumstead  and 
Thomas  Cooper  decided  to  buy  it.  At  this  time  there  was 
virtually  war  between  the  followers  of  Cameron  and  the 
Royalists  in  Scotland,  and  hearing  that  numbers  of  Scotch- 
men desired  to  immigrate,  the  twelve  Quaker  proprietors  of 
East  Jersey  doubtless  made  a  clever  bid  for  Scotch  Quakers 
by  extending  the  proprietary  to  twelve  others,  among  whom 
were  many  distinguished  Scotchmen,  as  the  famous  Quaker 
author,  Robert  Barclay,  Robert  Gorden,  Lord  Drummond, 
the  Earl  of  Perth,  Aarent  Sonnemans,  Gawen  Lawrie  and 
Robert  West.  The  year  following  Robert  Barclay  was 
elected  governor  of  East  Jersey,  no  walso  a  Quaker  colony. 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  535 


The  position  was  for  life.  His  deputy  was  Thomas  Rudyard, 
and  later  Gawen  Lawrie.  This  was  undoubtedly  a  bait  to 
induce  Robert  Barclay  of  Urie  to  come  to  America,  and  add 
his  undoubted  influence  and  strength  to  the  Quaker  move- 
ment; but  while  he  accepted  the  governorship,  he  never  left 
England,  and  ruled  through  his  deputy. 

Scotch,  English  and  Irish  Quakers  now  came  into  the 
Colony,  induced  by  the  attractions  held  out  by  the  Proprie- 
tors ;  and  the  Quakers  became  a  dominant  power  in  the  Jer- 
seys under  the  skillful  Executive  Board,  the  Council  of  Pro- 
prietors. Upon  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne,  in  1702,  this 
powerful  and  influential  council  surrendered  its  rights  of 
government,  but  retained  its  proprietary  rights.  The  incom- 
ing of  the  Scots  resulted  in  a  remarkable  schism,  due  to  a 
friend  of  the  Barclays,  one  George  Keith  of  Keith  Hall, 
Aberdeenshire,  who  became  a  so-called  "Christian  Quaker," 
and  is  referred  to  elsewhere. 

In  1682  the  second  Yearly  Meeting  of  New  Jersey  found 
a  remarkable  increase  in  the  numbers  of  Quakers.  Three 
hundred  and  sixty  came  in  one  ship,  and  the  news  which 
they  brought  that  William  Perm  had  secured  a  vast  domain 
to  the  south  and  west,  and  was  to  establish  a  great  Quaker 
'colony,  aroused  profound  enthusiasm.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  the  decided  difference  between  the  Quakers  of  East  and 
West  Jersey.  The  West,  populated  directly  from  England, 
held  more  decidedly  to  English  ways  and  customs,  while 
East  Jersey  had  received  many  of  its  settlers  from  the  New 
England  Puritan  Colonies,  and  was  more  rigorous  and  stern. 
This  was  even  illustrated  and  evident  in  the  laws  and  various 
customs. 

During  the  rapid  development  of  the  country  the  Quakers 


536      THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


filled  many  of  the  highest  offices.  Samuel  Jennings  was 
speaker  in  the  Assembly  imtil  his  death  in  1709,  and  pre- 
vious to  this  was  governor,  with  a  salary  of  six  hundred 
acres  of  land  beyond  the  Delaware  Falls.  Thomas  Olive 
was  also  a  Quaker  governor,  while  George  Deacon,  Benja- 
min Wheat,  Thomas  Gardiner  and  others  filled  many  offices 
with  credit,  and  gave  to  the  Colony  a  reputation  for  the 
observance  of  law  and  justice  which  holds  to-day  in  New 
Jersey. 

The  various  meetings  grew  rapidly  and  were  often  visited 
by  distinguished  Friends  from  England.  The  Jersey  Quakers 
were  as  conscientious  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians  as 
were  Fenn's  followers  in  the  neighboring  colony  later  on. 
They  opened  their  meeting-houses  to  Indians  and  negroes, 
and  in  every  way  endeavored  to  carry  out  the  great  princi- 
ples of  altruism;  that  they  were  successful  is  shown  by  the 
last  words  of  King  Ockanickon  at  Burlington  in  1681 : 
"This  day  I  deliver  my  heart  into  your  bosom.  I  would 
have  you  love  what  is  good  and  keep  good  company.  Be 
plain  and  fair  with  all  Indians  and  Christians."  Noble 
language  for  a  savage  king  to  his  heir.  One  of  the  most 
important  of  the  Indian  Conferences  of  New  Jersey  was  held 
at  Burlington  in  1758,  and  later  the  six  nations  met  at 
Easton,  Pennsylvania,  when  the  Indians  gave  up  all  their 
claims  to  land  in  New  Jersey,  with  a  small  exception,  for 
one  thousand  pounds.  An  Indian  reservation  was  estab- 
lished on  three  thousand  acres  in  what  is  now  Indian  Mills, 
Burlington  County,  the  last  of  the  tribe  being  removed  to 
Indian  Territory  in  1832.  John  Woolman  led  the  work 
with  Indians  and  accomplished  much  good  He  also  became 
an  active  force  in  liberating  negro  slaves,  as  Friends  owned 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  537 


slaves  in  the  early  days,  and  in  1800  there  were  twelve 
thousand,  four  hundred  and  forty-two  negro  slaves  in  New 
Jersey.  It  is  due  to  Woolman  that  few  were  owned  by 
Quakers,  the  custom  rapidly  falling  into  disrepute. 

As  elsewhere,  the  Quakers  suffered  for  their  views  against 
war.  They  would  not  join  the  army  of  defense  when  the 
Indians  rose,  nor  would  they  vote  for  arms  and  powder, 
even  when  it  was  more  than  evident  that  it  was  needed. 
This  may  be  said  to  have  been  a  dominant  note  in  the  loss 
of  political  influence  among  Quakers.  They  were  appreci- 
ated for  their  virtues,  but  they  were  also  considered  "unsafe" 
and  impracticable  when  faced  with  Indians  aroused  by  peo- 
ples and  colonists  not  Quakers,  and  the  result  was  similar 
to  that  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Quakers  were  gradually 
divested  of  their  political  influence.  The  Jersey  Quakers 
were  particularly  interested  in  education,  A  large  majority 
came  from  families  of  importance,  and  they  soon  estab- 
lished schools  of  various  kinds,  and  stood  at  the  head  in 
refinement  and  cultivation  and  education  in  the  Colony.  It 
is  interesting  to  glance  at  the  names  of  the  old  pioneers.  The 
names  of  Morris,  Dillwyn,  Cox,  Kinsey,  Smith,  Lloyd, 
Bassett,  Bidall,  Biddle,  Hacker,  Boice,  Newhall,  Kite,  and 
many  more,  and  note  how  they  have  been  perpetuated  and 
are  still  pillars  of  strength  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey 
to-day. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  ministers  and  elders  of  Burling- 
ton Quarterly  Meeting,  2  mo.  1767:  John  Sykes, 
Joannah  Sykes,  Josiah  Foster,  John  Butker,  Mary  Bunting, 
Samuel  Satterthwaite,  Thomas  Buzby,  William  Morris, 
Daniel  Smith,  Joseph  Burr,  Jane  Burr,  Jacob  Andrews, 
Josiah  White,  Daniel  Doughty,  Edith  Doughty,  Joseph 


538      THE  QUAKERS  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


Noble,  Edward  Cat±irel,  Rachel  Cathrel,  Elizabeth  Wool- 
man,  Elizabeth  Borden,  Katherine  Kalender,  Ebenezer  Mot, 
William  Lowrie,  Benjamin  Field,  Edward  Whitcraft,  An- 
thony Benezet,  Joyce  Benezet,  Sarah  Newbold,  Hannah 
Bickerdike,  Elizabeth  Shinn,  John  Smith,  Peter  Worral, 
Susannah  Worral,  Benjamin  Jones,,  Elizabeth  Jones, 
Thomas  Middleton,  Patience  Middleton,  Elizabeth  Smith, 
Mary  Brown,  Jane  Smith,  Sarah  English,  Amos  Middle- 
ton,  Samuel  Worth,  Joseph  Horner,  Samuel  Gaunt,  Meri- 
beth  Fowler,  Anthony  Sykes,  Peter  Harvey,  Mary  Harvey, 
Mary  Buzby,  John  Sleeper,  Caleb  Carr,  Katherine  Weth- 
eril,  Asher  Woolman,  Esther  Hatkinson,  Elizabeth  Hatkin- 
son,  Sarah  Woolman,  Abner  Woolman,  John  Woolman, 
William  Jones. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


QUAKERS  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST. 

In  1663,  attempts  were  being  made  to  induce  settlers  to 
take  up  land  in  the  Carolinas.   Sir  John  Carleton  was  inter- 
ested in  the  subject  and  he  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Albemarle, 
saying  that  the  proposed  settlers  would  not  come  without  an 
assurance  of  liberty  of  conscience.    This  brought  a  prompt 
assurance  from  the  Proprietors,  who  replied  that  they  "will 
grant  in  as  ample  a  manner  as  the  undertakers  shall  desire 
freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience  in  all  religious  or  spiritual 
things,  and  to  be  kept  inviolably  with  them,  we  having 
power  in  our  charter  so  to  do."   Not  only  this,  the  Proprie- 
tors were  so  anxious  for  settlers,  very  much  after  the  modern 
land  scheme  fashion,  that  they  were  willing  to  allow  would- 
be  settlers  to  select  a  governor  of  their  own  persuasion, — 
"some  persons  that  are  for  liberty  of  conscience  may  desire 
a  governor  of  their  own  persuasion."    Later  on,  in  1665, 
when  George  Fox  was  in  Scarborough  Castle  and  the  plague 
was  devastating  London,  the  Proprietors  made  a  proposition 
.  to  Sir  John  Yeamans  which  provided  that  "no  person    *  * 
*    *    shall  be  any  way  molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or 
called  in  question  or  practice  in  matters  of  religious  con- 
cernment."   This  and  many  other  assurances  were  made  to 
the  Quakers,  who  entered  the  southern  colony  full  of  hope 
and  religious  zeal,  and  became,  as  they  were  elsewhere, 
model  citizens  in  every  respect.    Once  on  the  ground,  and 
in  possession  of  land,  they  were  more  or  less  at  the  mercy 
of  those  who  induced  them  to  go  south,  and  despite  all  the 


540  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


promises  they  fell  under  the  ban  and  were  treated  with  great 
severity  and  injustice.  In  Virginia  the  governor  and  assist- 
ants were  all  powerful;  the  only  appeal  was  to  the  King, 
and  as  he  appointed  the  governor,  he  generally  agreed  with 
him. 

In  Georgia  the  Quakers  were  protected  by  the  charter, 
while  in  North  and  South  Carolina  the  Dissenters  had  their 
rights  in  black  and  white  in  the  charter  and  fundamental 
constitutions,  though  the  degree  of  toleration  was  vested  in 
the  judicial  mind  of  the  proprietor.  In  a  word,  there  were 
laws  which  on  their  face  were  liberal  and  just,  but  if  the 
interpreter  of  the  laws  was  a  violent  churchman,  with  an 
ecclesiastical  program,  a  protagonist  of  the  establishment  of 
the  English  Church,  the  Dissenter  would  doubtless  not  find 
a  bed  of  roses.  It  is  a  fact  that  an  ecclesiastical  program, 
having  for  its  goal  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  the  Southern  Colonies,  was  in  the  air ;  but  it  was  not 
attempted  in  the  Carolinas  until  1698,  during  which  period 
the  Quakers  had  become  a  force  and  power  in  the  colonies. 
Virginia  was  the  second  colony  in  which  Quakerism  was 
preached.  Elizabeth  Harris  of  London  having  entered  the 
colony  in  1658,  the  year  of  the  Woodhouse  party  in  New 
England,  and  made  a  number  of  converts,  one  being  Robert 
Clarkson  of  Gloucester  County.  Thomas  Thurston  and 
Josiah  Cole  of  Bristol  entered  Virginia  in  1657  and  were 
promptly  banished,  after  imprisonment  and  much  ill-treat- 
ment. This  attracted  more  Quakers  instead  of  acting  as  a 
warning,  and  William  Robinson,  Robert  Hodgson  and 
Christopher  Holder  soon  arrived  to  spread  the  word. 

The  most  stringent  laws  were  now  enacted  in  Virginia 
against  the  Quakers,  and  the  story  is  practically  that  of  New 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST  541 


England.  Shipmasters  who  smuggled  in  Quakers  were  fined 
five  hundred  dollars,  and  on  the  third  return  of  a  Quaker 
after  banishment  he  was  treated  as  a  felon.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  dwell  on  the  horrors  of  this  period  in  Virginia;  but 
despite  the  ill-treatment  the  Quakers  increased  in  numbers. 
William  Edmundson  was  the  founder  of  the  sect  in  North 
Carolina,  and  attracted  a  large  following  to  the  region  by 
his  preaching,  as  he  traveled  over  the  country. 

Despite  ill-treatment,  the  Quakers  moved  on  and  on,  first 
to  Virginia  and  Maryland,  then  pushing  into  the  Carolinas, 
where  large  meetings  were  built  up,  as  New  Garden,  Cane 
Creek,  Deep  River  in  North  Carolina,  and  Bush  River  and 
others  in  South  Carolina.  In  1771  the  South  received  a 
strong  and  virile  immigration  from  Nantucket  Island,  which 
explains  the  names  of  Macy,  Swann,  Coffin,  Starbuck, 
Folger,  Bernard,  Bunker,  Wickersham,  Dixon  and  others  in 
the  vicinity  of  Guilford  County,  North  Carolina.  From 
these  regions  came  the  great  migrations  of  Friends  to  the 
Middle  West.  George  Rofe  in  1661  found  many  settled 
meetings  in  Maryland.  George  Fox  visited  Maryland  in 
1672  and  held  many  important  meetings.  In  the  same  year 
he  went  to  North  Carolina  and  encouraged  the  Quakers, 
.carrying  out  the  policy  of  visitations  which  is  so  prominent 
a  feature  of  these  people. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  speak  of  Quakerism  in  South  Caro- 
lina without  referring  to  John  Archdale,  Quaker  Governor, 
General  and  Landgreve,  who  in  1694  drew  a  salary  of  one 
thousand  dollars  per  annum.  Some  time  between  1673  and 
1681  he  became  a  Quaker  and  his  appointment  as  Governor 
was  an  appreciation  of  his  talents  as  a  diplomat,  and  with 
the  hope  that  it  would  heal  the  breach  between  the  Dis- 


542  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


senters  and  the  church  party,  and  settle  the  disputes  regard- 
ing the  tenure  of  land,  the  payment  of  quit  rents  and  various 
other  questions.  Archdale  was  given  what  were  practically 
unlimited  powers.  One  of  his  acts  was  to  see  that  the 
Quakers  had  liberty  of  conscience.  He  was  a  "free  Quaker," 
apparently,  as  he  administered  a  military  law,  yet  he  secured 
the  passage  of  an  act,  of  1695-6,  which  exempted  the 
Quakers  in  time  of  war,  and  when  the  Quakers  were  men- 
aced he  wrote,  in  so  many  words,  to  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson : 
"If  you  persist  in  oppressing  this  free  people,  they  will  leave 
the  Colony  and  go  to  Pennsylvania,  where  they  can  have 
justice.  When  people  are  living  in  a  wilderness  they  expect 
an  enlargement  of  their  privileges,  not  a  lessening."  Under 
Archdale  the  Colony  grew  and  prospered.  From  1725  to 
1775  there  was  a  constant  inflow  of  Quakers  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York,  New  England  and  from  the  mother 
country.  These  movements  often  had  much  to  do  with  land 
settlements.  Great  tracts  weere  obtained  by  some  enterpris- 
ing speculator;  a  grant  would  be  secured,  and  Quakers  in- 
duced to  settle  on  it.  In  this  way  hundreds  of  Friends  wan- 
dered on  and  on,  and  have  now  reached  the  Pacific  coast, 
where  there  is  one  of  the  most  flourishing  colonies  in  America. 

The  migrations  of  Friends  continued  to  the  South  until 
1775,  when  Georgia  was  settled.  Slavery  had  always  been 
the  menace  among  Quakers,  and  when  they  found  that  they 
could  not  stop  it,  they  determined  to  leave  a  country  where 
it  existed;  and  it  was  this  reason,  to  a  large  extent,  which 
produced  in  1800  the  remarkable  migration  of  Quakers  from 
the  South  and  Southeast,  over  the  mountains  to  Ohio  and 
Indiana.  The  movement  was  not  a  surrender.  It  was  a 
protest  against  a  system  that  Quakers  denounced  in  the  sev- 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST  543 


enteenth  century,  and  which  all  civilized  nations  threw  off 
as  a  relic  of  barbarism  in  the  nineteenth  century, — a  tardy 
recognition  of  the  Quakers  who  had  been  virtually  fighting 
slavery  for  two  hundred  years. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  in  detail  the  remarkable 
experiences  of  the  Quakers  in  the  early  days  of  the  South, 
their  marches  across  plain  and  mountains  to  the  West.  In 
the  early  days  slaves  were  owned  by  some  Quakers  in  all 
the  colonies.  In  1772  the  Virginia  Yearly  Meeting,  and  a 
little  later  the  North  Carolina,  after  many  protests,  aided 
and  abetted  by  John  Woolman  and  Anthony  Benzenet,  who 
had  been  working  on  the  subject  for  years,  denounced  all 
members  who  persisted  in  owning  slaves.  This  was  the 
beginning,  and  aided  by  certain  other  causes,  the  western 
migration  began.  There  are  many  Quakers  in  the  South 
to-day;  but  the  North  Carolina  Yearly  Meeting  embraces 
that  state  and  Tennessee,  and  the  entire  number  of  Quakers 
in  the  South  is  not  over  ten  thousand.  While  the  west- 
ern movement  depleted  the  South,  it  aided  materially  in 
strengthening  Quakerism  at  large,  as  strong  and  vigorous 
communities  were  built  up  in  the  West,  where  to-day  the 
Quakers  are  strong  and  a  growing  sect.  As  in  1787  slavery 
.was  excluded  from  the  country  north  of  Ohio,  this  region 
became  an  attractive  point,  and  the  Quakers  rapidly  poured 
in  from  the  South.  Regarding  this  movement,  Wm.  H. 
Coffin  of  Pasadena  writes : 

"Wm.  Hunt  of  Guilford  County,  North  Carolina,  was  a  noted  min- 
ister of  his  day.  He  died  in  England  while  there  on  a  religious  visit, 
His  son,  Nathan  Hunt,  was  one  of  the  ablest  ministers  of  his  day.  He 
also  traveled  much,  and  died  an  old  man  at  his  home  in  North  Caro- 
lina in  1853.  He  was  the  father  of  Asenath  Clark  and  the  grandfather 
of  her  son.  Dr.  Dougan  Clark,  both  of  whom  were  able  spiritual  min- 


544  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


isters  down  to  recent  years.  Jeremiah  Hubbard,  whom  some  living, 
among  the  old  people,  yet  recollect,  was  a  contemporary  of  Nathan 
Hunt  and  was  considered  one  of  the  most  learned  and  eloquent  men 
of  his  day.  He  was  an  educator,  traveled  much  in  the  ministry  and  was 
many  years  in  advance  of  his  generation  in  the  liberality  of  his  views. 
Many  were  converted  under  his  stirring  and  fearless  ministry  and  many 
new  ministers  brought  out  and  recorded.  He  was  one-fourth  Chero- 
kee Indian,  six  feet  six  inches  high,  long  black  hair,  and  a  striking, 
dignified  figure,  and  the  revivalist  of  his  day.  His  death  occurred  in 
Wayne  County,  Indiana,  in  1850.  Isaac  Hiammer  and  Wm.  Williams 
were  also  noted  ministers,  who  removed  to  Tennessee  about 
1800,  where  quite  a  body  of  Friends  had  settled.  Wm.  Williams,  after 
many  years,  removed  again  to  Wayne  County,  Indiana,  where  he  died. 
All  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  River  having  been  organized  and 
slavery  excluded  therefrom  by  the  ordinance  of  1787,  and  opened  for 
settlement,  Friends,  especially  from  the  South,  began  at  once  to 
remove  to  such  a  land  so  rich  in  resources.  Thomas  Bales,  a  minister 
of  New  Garden,  North  Carolina,  with  a  few  others,  removed  and  set- 
tled in  1782.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  white  emigrant  amongst 
Friends  to  settle  in  Ohio.  He  died  in  1801  and  was  buried  in  a  coffin 
dug  out  of  a  log,  no  lumber  then  being  available.  The  first  large 
emigration  after  this  came  from  a  Monthly  Meeting  in  Contentuca 
Quarter,  North  Carolina,  the  members  of  which  removed  in  a  body, 
taking  their  certificates  and  laying  down  their  meeting,  by  consent  of 
the  Quarter  ,and  settling  in  Ohio  in  1800. 

"Emigrations  followed  with  increasing  volume  to  the  Miami  Coun- 
try and  its  tributaries,  and  Miama  Monthly  and  Quarterly  Meetings 
were  established  in  1803.  Many  Friends  came  in  from  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia,  but  the  most  from  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  until  all  the 
meetings  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were  laid  down  and  very 
many  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  Zachary  Dix,  an  able  minister 
of  Cane  Creek  Meeting,  North  Carolina,  who  also  was  supposed  to 
have  a  prophetic  gift,  visited  Bush  River  Quarterly  Meeting,  South 
Carolina,  in  1803.  It  was  a  large  meeting  of  several  hundred  members, 
with  a  large  new  meeting-house.  He  got  up  with  the  words,  'Oh, 
Bush  River,  Bush  River,  how  is  thy  glory  become  dimmed,  and  gloom- 
ing darkness  eclipsed  thy  day,'  and  predicted  a  bloody  war  on  account 
of  slavery  in  the  lives  of  the  children  then  living,  and  advised  Friends 
to  get  away  from  there. 

''This  produced  a  panic  and  in  a  few  years  all  had  sold  and  gone 
to  the  Miami  Country,  Ohio.  Such  families  as  Furnas,  Spray,  Cox,  Mills, 
Wilson,  Jay,  Wright,  Evans,   Coates,  Hollingsworth,   Cook,  Jones, 


r 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST  545 


Thomas,  Miles,  Cammack,  Lewis  and  others,  many  of  whom  and  their 
children  afterward  removed  to  other  parts  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and 
we  find  their  names  all  over  the  West.  David  Hoover,  his  father  and 
brothers,  Friends  from  Randolph  County,  North  Carolna,  cut  their 
way  through  the  dense  woods  from  Stillwater,  Ohio,  to  the  White 
Water  in  Indiana,  in  1805,  where  Richmond  now  is.  I  knew  him  well, 
as  he  lived  until  1866  and  died  on  the  same  land  he  then  entered. 
Thomas  Symons,  my  uncle,  went  fifteen  miles  farther,  being  the  first 
settler  on  West  Fork,  at  Milton.  A  great  emigration  followed  these 
pioneers,  mostly  from  Randolph  and  Guilford  Counties,  North  Caro- 
lina, and  large  meetings  of  Friends  were  established  all  over  the  best 
parts  of  Indiana  and  eastern  Illinois,  all  being  subject  to  Indiana  Yearly 
Meeting,  which  was  set  up  in  1821  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  and  was  the 
progenitor  of  all  the  Yearly  Meetings  in  the  West.  Western,  Iowa, 
Wilmington  and  Kansas,  the  Pacific  Coast  Yearly  Meeting  was  set 
up  by  Iowa  Yearly  Meeting. 

"The  western  migration  did  not  take  all  the  Friends  from  the  Caro- 
linas.  In  1855  there  were  over  a  thousand  Quakers  living  in  North 
Carolina,  and  by  1895  they  had  increased  to  over  six  thousand.  There 
are  now  eight  Quarterly  Meetings  in  the  state;  the  Eastern,  with  a 
membership  of  three  hundred  and  ninety-five;  Western,  nine  hundred 
and  fifty-four;  Southern,  eight  hundred  and  fifty-six;  Deep  River,  eight 
hundred  and  forty-three;  New  Garden,  six  hundred  and  four;  Content- 
wold,  six  hundred  and  eighty-seven;  Yadken  Valley,  eleven  hundred; 
Surrey,  seven  hundred  and  twenty-seven.  These  eight  Quarterly 
Meetings  include  twenty-seven  Monthly  Meetings,  and  in  the  Yearly 
Meeting  there  are  sixty-one  recorded  ministers. 

"It  might  be  interesting  here  to  give  the  names  of  a  few  of  the 
pioneer  settlers  who  were  the  foremost,  leading  men  in  Ohio  and  Indi- 
ana among  Friends  in  Indiana  Yearly  Meeting  from  1820  or  before  to 
L850.  Elijah  Coffin,  who  had  been  Clerk  of  North  Carolna  Yearly 
Meeting,  was  in  1827  appointed  Clerk  of  Indiana  Yearly  Meeting  soon 
after  his  removal  West,  and  served  continuously  for  thirty-two  years, 
then  his  son,  Charles  F.  Coffin,  served  twenty-seven,  covering  a  period 
of  fifty-nine  years.  No  persons  had  such  opportunities  as  they  to  know 
the  representative  men  among  the  pioneer  Friends,  or  of  the  growth 
and  settlement  of  meetings.  Charles  Osborn,  whose  life  work  was  not 
only  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  in  which  he  traveled  extensively, 
but  he  was  the  first  man  in  America  to  publish  an  anti-slavery  paper, 
called  the  'Philanthropist,'  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Ohio,  in  1816,  in  which  he 
advocated  the  immediate  and  unconditional  abolition  of  slavery.  In 
after  years  it  was  published  by  Achelles  Pugh  of  Cincinnati,  and 
35 


546  IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


destroyed  by  a  mob  in  the  early  forties.  Levi  Coffin  was  everywhere 
known  as  the  President  of  the  Underground  Railroad,  and  3000  slaves 
passed  through  his  hands  to  permanent  liberty. 

"Through  the  early  days  we  found  such  staunch  men  in  the  Church 
as  Wm.  Hobbs,  George  Carter,  George  Evans,  Thomas  Evans,  Robert 
Furnas,  Jacob  Elliott,  David  Baily,  David  Mote,  Daniel  Wood,  Benajah 
Hiatt,  James  Hadley  of  White  Lick,  Robert  W.  Hodgson,  Elezer 
Bates,  Ephriam  Morgan,  Wm.  Croseman,  James  Hadley  of  Fairfield, 
Joseph  Doan,  Thomas  Arnett,  Henry  Wilson,  James  White,  Joseph 
Cox,  Daniel  Williams,  Wm.  Talbert,  John  Maxwell,  John  Pool  and 
very  many  others  who  deserve  mention.  These  were  all  men  univer- 
sally esteemed  as  men  of  strict  integrity,  good  judgment,  deep  Chris- 
tian experience,  sound  in  doctrine,  well  versed  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  many  of  them  able  ministers  of  their  day.  While  slavery  was  the 
over-ruling  cause  of  the  great  emigration  of  Friends  from  the  South, 
there  were  other  causes.  The  land  in  the  Southern  States,  much  of 
it,  had  become  exhausted  from  over-cropping,  and  very  many  had  fam- 
ilies growing  up  they  wished  to  settle  where  they  could  procure  rich, 
fertile  lands  at  government  prices." 

In  1861  there  were  in  the  South  seven  Quarterly  Meetings, 
thirty-one  places  of  worship,  twelve  Friends  schools,  and 
about  twenty-five  thousand  members.  Twelve  years  later 
the  Quarterly  Meeting  had  increased  to  eight,  the  meeting 
places  to  forty-four,  and  the  schools  to  forty-two,  while  the 
membership  had  more  than  doubled. 

The  Quakers  increased  in  numbers  in  the  various  Western 
States,  and  in  1885  or  1886  began  to  settle  in  California 
and  Oregon.  Previous  to  this  there  were  small  Quaker 
Meetings  in  various  parts  of  the  coast.  There  are  two  meet- 
ing-houses in  the  city  of  Pasadena,  one  in  Los  Angeles,  and 
the  thriving  town  of  Whittier  was  founded  by  Friends,  who 
maintain  one  of  the  best  Friends  colleges  in  the  West. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  eastern  Indiana,  the  Society  of 
Friends  took  no  small  part,  and  soon  they  came  to  consti- 
tute a  large  and  influential  portion  of  the  population.  They 
early  established  a  system  of  schools  of  both  primary  and 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


academic  grade,  and  not  yet  satisfied  with  this  meagre 
course  of  instruction,  they  early  projected  a  school  that  rap- 
idly became  a  pioneer  among  Western  colleges  in  the  promo- 
tion of  advanced  instruction. 

In  1832  the  Friends  launched  a  movement  to  establish  a 
boarding  school  that  should  be  the  head  of  a  system  of 
denominational  education  and  a  site  of  three  hundred  acres 
was  purchased  near  Richmond,  Indiana.  In  1837  a  com- 
mittee was  chosen  to  establish  the  school,  and  in  another 
year  enough  funds  had  been  secured  to  start  building.  Many 
difficulties  were  encountered,  and  it  was  not  until  1847  ^^^^ 
the  school  was  actually  opened.  For  twelve  years  the 
Friends'  Boarding  School  was  a  distinct  factor  in  the  work 
of  education  in  Indiana.  From  the  time  of  its  foundation 
both  sexes  were  admitted  on  equal  terms,  thus  placing  the 
institution  among  the  earliest  co-educational  schools  in 
America. 

In  1859  the  school  received  a  college  charter,  and  was 
named  Earlham  College.  The  earliest  officers  and  teachers 
were  men  and  women  from  New  England,  whose  refine- 
ment, force  of  character  and  scholarly  attainments  gave  it 
from  its  beginning  an  enviable  reputation  throughout  the 
'  Ohio  Valley. 

Earlham  College  not  only  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being 
one  of  the  first  co-educational  institutions  in  America,  but  of 
having  been  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  West  to  offer  ad- 
vanced practical  instruction  in  Science.  In  1853  it  made 
the  beginning  in  Indiana  toward  a  permanent  collection  of 
material  in  Natural  History  for  the  purposes  of  college 
instruction.  About  this  time  the  first  astronomical  observa- 
tory in  the  State  was  established  upon  the  campus.  There 


548 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST 


also  the  first  chemical  laboratory  in  Indiana  for  the  use  of 
college  students  was  equipped. 

The  first  degrees  were  conferred  in  1862.  Since  then 
more  than  nine  hundred  graduates  have  been  sent  out  in  all 
the  professions  and  callings.  Among  these  are  Dr.  Benj.  F. 
Trueblood,  General  Secretary  of  the  American  Peace  Society ; 
Robert  U.  Johnson,  editor  of  Century  Magazine;  S.  Edgar 
Nicholson,  General  Secretary  of  the  National  Anti-Saloon 
League;  T.  Ray  White,  Chief  Legal  Counsel  of  the  Civic 
Reform  Movement  in  Philadelphia ;  and  Wm.  Cullen  Den- 
nis, former  Assistant  Solicitor,  Department  of  State,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  The  alumni  are  represented  in  nearly  all  the 
leading  university  faculties  in  the  country. 

In  Oratory,  Debating  and  Athletics,  Earlham  College  has 
a  record  of  which  it  is  proud.  Since  1893  the  College  has 
been  represented  in  eighteen  state  oratorical  contests,  and 
has  won  first  place  six  times,  second  place  four  times,  and 
third  place  four  times.  In  debating,  since  1898,  Earlham 
has  been  in  nineteen  inter-collegiate  contests  and  won  thir- 
teen. In  athletics,  the  college  record  has  been  an  enviable 
one,  ranking  at  the  head  of  the  colleges  of  its  class  in  the 
state. 

*The  College  has  a  campus  of  forty  acres  adjoining  the 
City  of  Richmond,  and  overlooking  the  Whitewater  River 
Valley.  Eight  spacious  college  buildings  furnish  the  build- 
ing equipment.  Including  the  School  of  Music  and  College 
Extension  Department,  the  student  body  last  year  (1910- 
191 1)  numbered  642.  About  240  live  in  dormitories  on  the 
campus.    The  home  life  afforded  the  students  is  one  of  the 

*I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Harlow  Lindley  of  Earlham  College 
for  this  data.  C.  F.  H. 


r 


IN  THE  SOUTH  AND  WEST  549 


distinctive  features  of  the  institution.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  Quaker  idea  is  carried  out.  The  College  has  no 
fraternities,  proms,  smokers  or  card  parties,  but  a  healthful 
social  atmosphere  conducive  to  the  most  wholesome  student 
life  is  maintained.  The  student  body  is  remarkably  cohe- 
sive and  the  absence  of  Greek  letter  fraternities  has  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  a  fraternity  embracing  the  whole 
student  body.  The  institution  is  a  typical  college  as  con- 
trasted with  a  university.  Its  requirements  are  equivalent  to 
those  in  the  leading  universities  in  America,  but  its  work 
is  concentrated,  in  the  main,  upon  undergraduate  courses. 
The  management  of  the  College  is  impressed  with  the  con- 
viction of  the  great  need  to-day  for  earnest,  broad-minded 
and  high-minded  men,  well  grounded,  educated  and  trained 
for  active  work  and  this  is  the  goal  for  which  the  Friends' 
College  is  striving. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


QUAKERS  IN  WAR  TIME. 

It  would  not  have  required  much  prescience  on  the  part 
of  the  student  of  government  to  forecast  the  destiny  of  a 
nation  which  would  attempt  to  hold  its  place  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  with  other  nations,  armed  with  passive  resist- 
ance and  faith.  This  extraordinary  argument  succeeded  in 
the  colony  of  New  England  when  the  early  Quaker  pioneers 
won  the  battle  from  Endicott  and  the  Puritans;  but  this  was 
an  inter-colonial  affair;  it  was  a  fight  between  countrymen 
who  were  all  true  to  their  allegiance  to  the  King  and  gen- 
erally obeyed  him.  When  the  colonies  were  established  in 
America  the  situation  changed.  America  loomed  up  suddenly 
to  the  powers  of  the  world  much  as  did  Africa  after  the 
finding  of  Livingstone.  It  was  a  new  field  for  exploration. 
The  Spanish  had  been  the  pioneers,  originally  owning  the 
entire  continent,  and  in  following  years  the  battle  was  on 
among  the  Dutch,  English  and  French,  with  smaller  govern- 
ments looking  wistfully  on. 

The  early  New  England  colonists  would  have  had  a  sad 
time  convincing  the  Indians  of  the  fine  truths  of  altruism,  if 
their  guns  had  not  always  been  ready.  With  the  Quakers, 
the  Puritans  put  their  trust  in  God,  but  here  they  parted. 
The  Puritan  kept  his  powder  dry,  while  the  Quaker  would 
have  none  of  it,  and,  as  a  consequence,  his  protection  fell 
upon  the  rest,  all  of  which  occasioned  endless  dissensions. 
The  amazed  Indians  in  all  the  colonies  were  bombarded  by 
the  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  Quakers,  Anabaptists,  Catholics 


r 


IN  WAR  TIME 


551 


and  many  more  earnest  missionaries,  all  of  whose  arguments 
had  little  practical  effect  upon  the  savage  mind.  One  fact 
presented  itself :  the  white  man  had  secured  a  foothold  and 
gradually  and  insidiously  he  was  pushing  them  back  and 
eternally  back.  He  was  a  blight  upon  them.  They  observed 
that  the  Quakers,  of  all  the  sects,  did  exactly  as  they  prom- 
ised. The  Quaker  word  appeared  to  be  an  equivalent  to  a 
Puritan  treaty,  as  while  in  the  main  all  the  good  men  of  the 
Puritans  and  Dutch  attempted  to  deal  fairly  by  the  Indians 
and  generally  paid  them,  the  fact  remains  that  all  the  Quak- 
ers were  morally  alike.  If  they  were  Quakers,  they  could  be 
relied  upon,  as  the  moment  one  of  them  digressed  or  took 
advantage  of  their  fellow-men,  he  was  disowned  by  the 
parent  body.  With  other  sects  it  was  different.  Good  Puri- 
tans were  the  rule,  but  there  were  many  bad  and  intolerant 
ones  as  the  terrifying  times  of  1656  to  1690  gave  dramatic 
evidence. 

It  is  a  miracle  that  the  Quakers  succeeded  in  making  an  im- 
pression upon  the  American  savage ;  but  it  is  a  fact  that  they 
did,  and  that  the  American  Indian,  in  the  main,  respected 
them,  doubtless  understood  their  principles  and  spared  them 
on  many  occasions. 

.  With  the  other  Christian  nations  it  was  different.  The 
English  captured  New  York,  lost  it  to  the  Dutch  to  take  it 
again,  and  America  for  years  was  the  scene  of  give  and  take 
in  the  French,  Indian  and  other  wars;  and  in  the  end  the 
best  men,  the  strongest-armed  force  won. 

The  Quakers  have  always  advocated  arbitration,  and  its 
last  expression  is  the  fine  work  of  the  Peace  Society,  Andrew 
Carnegie  and  his  work  for  arbitration  at  The  Hague,  begun 
by  William  Penn.    So  long  as  the  colony  of  Penn  was  in 


552 


IN  WAR  TIME 


the  hands  of  the  Quakers  alone,  this  policy  of  no  war  could 
be  carried  out,  but  William  Penn  welcomed  the  people  of  all 
religions  and  nations,  and  as  they  gradually  increased  in 
numbers,  he  found  that  when  they  demanded  protection, 
which  was  evidently  needed,  he  was  embarassed.  As  a  result, 
this  feature  aided  materially  the  passing  of  the  Colony  from 
Quaker  to  the  hands  of  those  who  believed  in  a  policy  of 
armed  national  defense.  The  situation  was  evidently  impos- 
sible. The  non-Quaker  element  voted  appropriations  for 
guns  and  powder,  while  the  Quakers  voted  against  it,  or 
would  not  join  in  paying  for  it,  hence  the  end  came;  and  the 
Free  Quaker,  the  Quaker  who  would  fight  for  his  country  as 
a  moral  and  religious  duty,  but  who  did  not  believe  in  war, 
became  a  dominant  personality. 

The  first  great  test  of  the  Quakers  came  in  1776.  Pre- 
vious to  this  they  had  been  a  political  power  in  Rhode 
Island,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania;  but  when  the  Revo- 
lution broke  out  and  the  Americans  declared  themselves  a 
nation,  a  sovereign  people,  the  Quakers  were  unable  to  more 
than  protest  and  refuse  to  participate,  for  which  they  were 
denounced  as  traitors  and  ingrates.  Hundreds  of  Quakers 
and  descendants  of  Quakers  broke  the  bounds  and  have 
fought  the  battles  of  their  country  in  war;  but  the 
masses  still  hold  to  the  doctrine  of  George  Fox  that  war  is 
a  crime,  indefensible  and  a  remnant  of  barbarism.  If  the 
Quakers  did  not  fight  or  would  not,  they  were  not  traitors, 
they  were  not  inactive.  In  the  hospitals,  in  philanthropy, 
in  educating  freedmen,  in  caring  for  soldiers,  they  did  noble 
and  heroic  service. 

The  attitude  of  the  Friends  in  the  Revolution  of  1776  and 
their  efforts  to  prevent  all  wars  might  fill  a  large  volume,  as 


IN  WAR  TIME 


553 


they  have  never  ceased  their  anti-war  activities  from  1650 
to  1913. 

While  the  Friends  vigorously  opposed  an  armament,  there 
was  a  party  under  the  leadership  of  James  Logan  of  Phila- 
delphia that  believed  that  the  Friends  had  gone  too  far  in 
their  opposition  to  war.  Logan  publicly  stated  that  while 
he  opposed  an  offensive  war,  a  war  of  defense  was  not  only 
within  the  bounds  of  Christianity,  but  any  other  policy  was 
suicidal ;  and  that  any  man  who  held  such  views  was  not  fit- 
ted to  represent  the  people  in  the  Legislature.  Logan,  the  first 
of  the  Free  Quakers,  was  a  man  of  influence,  and  he  soon 
had  many  followers.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  William 
Penn  and  one  of  the  most  learned  and  brilliant  of  all  the 
Quakers  of  the  Colony.  He  came  from  Ulster,  and  at  an 
early  age  showed  remarkable  scholarship,  earning  distinction 
in  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  the  sciences  and  classics.  Follow- 
ing 1699  he  was  a  dominant  figure  in  the  Colony.  A  man 
of  distinguished  presence,  broad  courtesy  and  possessed  of 
an  abundance  of  common  sense,  he  filled  nearly  all  the 
more  important  offices  in  the  Colony,  was  conspicuous  for  his 
faithful  dealings  with  the  Indians,  and  it  was  in  his  honor 
that  the  great  chief  Togahjute  was  called  Logan.  Logan 
.  was  a  friend  of  Linnaeus.  He  wrote  Latin  essays  on  repro- 
duction in  plants  and  on  the  aberration  of  light,  and  to  him 
we  owe  an  excellent  translation  of  Catos  Disticha,  and 
Cicero's  "De  Senectute."  On  his  death  James  Logan  left 
his  classical  library  of  two  thousand  volumes  to  the  city. 
It  was  the  Logan  faction  of  young  Quakers  which  in  1764 
armed  themselves  to  protect  the  city  from  the  Paxton  boys, 
and  proposed  buying  a  cannon,  calling  it  a  "fire  engine." 

The  'Taxton  Boys"  were  part  of  a  band  who  in  1763 


554 


IN  WAR  TIME 


killed  several  of  the  Conestoga  Indians  who  were  living 
on  one  of  William  Penn's  manors  in  Lancaster  County. 
The  Paxton  Boys  were  frontiersmen  enraged  by  depreda- 
tions of  the  Indians  on  the  frontier,  who  determined  to  wipe 
out  all  Indians.  The  Lancaster  authorities  placed  the  rest 
of  the  Conestogas  in  jail  to  protect  them,  but  the  Paxton 
Boys  broke  into  it  and  killed  the  Indians.  Assembling  to 
the  number  of  several  hundred,  they  determined  to  march 
on  Philadelphia  and  kill  a  number  of  civilized  Indians  who 
had  been  sent  there  for  safety  by  the  Moravians,  who  had 
them  in  charge. 

It  was  to  repel  these  lynchers  that  some  Quakers,  on  the 
advice  of  Logan,  armed  themselves.  Isaac  Sharpless  sends 
to  the  Friends  Historical  Society  a  letter  from  Sarah  Potts, 
later  the  wife  of  Benjamin  Horner,  which  well  describes 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  Quaker  homes  of  Philadelphia 
when  menaced  by  the  "Paxtons."  Following  are  some  ex- 
tracts from  this  young  girl's  letter,  dated  Philadelphia,  Feb- 
ruary 9  th,  1764:  ' 

"My  very  dear  Sister: — I  expect  it  will  give  thee  uncommon  satis- 
faction to  see  a  letter  that  will  convince  thee  thy  dear  sister  is  still  in 
the  land  of  the  living,  after  the  dreadful  accounts  which  I  make  no 
doubt  have  before  this  time  reached  White  Hill,  and  filled  thy  heart 
with  the  extremest  anxiety  for  the  fate  of  this  beloved  city;  but  with 
how  much  more  for  the  fate  of  those  still  dearer  friends  that  in- 
habit it. 

****** 

On  Seventh  Day  there  was  an  express  that  the  Paxtons  were 
coming  down  in  a  large  body  well  armed,  as  was  supposed  to  kill  all 
the  Indians  and  all  that  opposed  them,  if  in  their  power.  The  citizens 
weere  immediately  summoned  to  meet  at  the  State  House  to  consult 
what  was  to  be  done.  The  news  flew  about,  and  as  is  common  in 
these  cases  lost  nothing  in  carrying,  so  when  it  reached  us  the 
people  were  all  in  arms  at  eight  o'clock  on  a  First  Day  morning. 
By  that  time  it  was  expected  the  Paxton  Boys  would  be  in  town,  and 


IN  WAR  TIME 


555 


it  was  feared  the  consequence  would  be  a  bloody  battle,  wherein  a 
great  many  innocent  people  might  fall.  They  endeavored  to  put 
themselves  in  as  good  a  posture  of  defense  as  they  could,  and  think- 
ing the  attack  would  be  made  at  the  barracks  where  the  Indians  were, 
turned  most  of  their  force  there.  *  *  *  Came  home  and  went  to 
bed  as  usual,  but  were  waked  about  3  o'clock  with  the  ringing  of  bells, 
the  alarm  guns,  and  a  dreadful  cry  of  fire.  Judge  what  could  have 
been  more  terrifying  at  such  an  hour.  Poor  sister,  how  I  pity  her 
when  I  think  of  it,  with  only  her  little  family  about  her,  when  in 
such  distress  obliged  to  conceal  as  much  as  possible  her  own  fright 
less  it  should  heighten  the  children's. 

But  when  day  appeared  it  seemed  to  dispel  the  melancholy  gloom 
a  little  which  had  overcast  the  faces  of  all,  at  least  the  females.  We 
could  now  see  each  other  and  consult  what  was  to  be  done.  Sister 
came  to  our  house  and  brought  more  dismal  accounts  than  we  heard 
before,  that  there  were  900  at  Germantown  for  certain,  and  it  was 
expected  they  had  a  great  number  of  friends  in  town  who  would  join 
them,  that  the  street  was  so  full  of  armed  men  she  could  hardly  pass, 
Quakers  not  excepted;  they  seemed  as  ready  to  take  up  arms  in  such 
a  cause  to  defend  the  laws  and  libertys  of  their  country  against  a 
parcel  of  rebels.  Edwarv.  Pennington,  they  say,  was  at  the  head  ot 
a  company,  and  I  am  to  think  two-thirds  of  the  young  Quakers  in 
town  took  up  arms.  I  believe  it's  very  certain  there  were  two  or 
three  thousand  men  marching  about  town  two  or  three  days  in  expec- 
tation of  the  enemy's  coming. 

The  Paxton  boys,  which  were  only  about  250  in  number,  were  fre- 
quently said  to  be  400  or  500.  The  big  Meeting-house  on  Third  Day, 
instead  of  having  youths'  meeting,  as  was  expected,  was  appropriated 
to  the  use  of  the  armed  men  to  shelter  them  from  the  rain,  when  the 
men  were  exercising  and  the  colors  flying  in  the  gallery,  from  where 
there  has  so  often  doctrine  been  preached  against  that  very  thing  of 
bearing  arms,  etc.,  etc. 

Our  kind  love  and  good  wishes  attend  you,  our  dear  sister  and 
brother  and  your  little  ones,  and  that  you  may  long  be  preserved  from 
such  tumults  as  we  have  lately  felt,  is  the  earnest  desire  of 

SALLIE  POTTS, 
Your  affectionate  sister." 

Up  to  the  Revolution,  the  Quakers  were  active  in  poli- 
tics, but  their  political  doom  was  sealed  when  the  idea 
became  fixed  in  the  minds  of  the  English  people  that  the 
time  had  come  when  every  man  would  have  to  fight  for  his 


556 


IN  WAR  TIME 


country,  or  give  up  participation  in  its  political  affairs.  The 
Quakers  in  the  Colonies  saw  the  shadow  on  the  wall;  they 
withdrew  from  politics,  and  refused  to  serve  in  the  Legis- 
lature. Many  events  led  up  to  the  revolution  of  1776.  In 
1762,  fourteen  years  previous,  the  treaty  of  Fontainbleau 
brought  to  an  end  the  French,  English  and  Indian  troubles 
which  had  been  a  menace  to  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey ; 
and  hardly  had  the  people  settled  down  to  fancied  security 
when  another  and  more  serious  cloud  appeared  on  the  hor- 
izon, one  that  was  to  broaden  and  sweep  from  England  its 
greatest  and  most  important  possession. 

Up  to  this  time  the  policy  of  the  home  government  had 
been  not  to  demand  taxes  from  the  Colony;  but  allow  them 
to  raise  their  own  taxes  and  employ  them  as  they  saw  fit. 
The  memorable  history  of  the  Stamp  Act  is  well  known.  It 
was  passed,  despite  protests  in  1765,  and  was  received  in 
America  in  a  manner  at  once  ominous  and  suggestive.  Vir- 
ginia declared  the  Act  invalid,  Philadelphia  muffled  its 
bells,  the  papers  appeared  in  mourning,  while  the  flags  were 
dropped  to  half  mast.  The  Quakers  refrained  from  action, 
and  in  an  epistle  to  the  London  Meeting  in  1766,  we  read: 
"Under  the  violent  ferment  reigning  at  this  time  in  the  col- 
onies, the  observation  that  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  and 
West  Jersey  have  better  to  keep  more  free  from  tumults  and 
riots  than  their  neighbors,  gives  us  cause  to  believe  that  the 
conduct  and  conversation  of  Friends  hath  in  some  measure 
tended  to  promote  this  good  effect." 

The  home  government  was  so  alarmed  that  it  repealed 
the  Stamp  Act  in  1766,  but  still  claimed  the  right  to  tax 
the  colonies,  and  to  make  a  demonstration  and  establish  a 
precedent,  it  imposed  a  three  pence  tax  per  pound  on  tea  and 


IN  WAR  TIME 


557 


various  other  articles;  whereupon  tea  became  at  once  a 
national  issue.  One  of  the  standard  jokes  among  the  young 
Quakers  of  the  New  England  coast  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury was  that  after  violent  easterly  storms,  tea  always 
washed  ashore,  and  many  an  unfortunate  boy  hunted  along 
the  beautiful  beach  of  Lynn,  for  the  tea  that  had  been  thrown 
overboard  a  century  before.  The  Americans  now  refused  to 
buy  English  tea,  importing  it  direct  from  Holland.  Over 
four  hundred  merchants  signed  a  paper  to  this  effect ;  among 
them  many  Quakers  who  now  found  themselves  facing  the 
query  read  in  the  Meeting,  "Are  Friends  careful  not  to 
defraud  the  King  of  his  dues?"  and  were  obliged  to  confess 
that  they  proposed  to  deprive  his  Majesty  of  all  his  dues, 
unless  the  Act  was  repealed.  This  was  the  first  "boycott," 
and  the  West  India  Company  soon  made  so  strong  a  pro- 
test that  in  1733  the  Government  repealed  the  Act. 

The  Imperial  Government  had  unwise  counselors  in  those 
days,  and  they  avoided  the  issue  by  putting  a  tax  on  the 
West  India  Company  for  all  teas  landed  in  America.  The 
Company  very  naturally  would  have  added  the  tax  to  the 
price  of  the  tea,  and  made  the  colonists  pay  it  in  the  end; 
but  the  Americans  stood  for  the  principle.  In  all  these 
'measures  the  Friends  were  parties.  In  Philadelphia  the 
chief  tea  importers  were  James  &  Drinker,  and  T.  &  I. 
Wharton,  Quakers,  yet  the  Quakers  in  general  sent  an  offi- 
cial declaration  to  the  king  showing  their  loyalty,  and  a 
disposition  to  avoid  trouble  in  which  they  were  aided  by  Ben- 
jamin Franklin.  The  above-mentioned  Quaker  firms 
shipped  their  tea  back.  Paul  Revere  now  arrived  in  Philadel- 
phia to  secure  their  aid,  and  later  came  the  destruction  of  tea 
in  the  harbor  of  Boston.   I  have  heard  my  grandfather,  John 


558 


IN  WAR  TIME 


Chase  Gove,  a  militant  Quaker,  tell  the  story  given  him  by 
his  father,  who  was  present  at  the  famous  "tea  party"  in 
Boston. 

The  situation  in  1775  was  menacing  for  Quakers.  Many 
were  still  in  the  Legislature;  others  were  violently  opposed 
to  any  concession  to  the  warlike  feeling,  and  were  like  Rotch 
of  Nantucket,  who  threw  his  bayonets  overboard  and  sailed 
for  France,  while  others  again  were  convinced  that  it  was 
their  duty  to  stand  with  the  Colony  and  did  so.  Numerous 
epistles  were  sent  to  the  home  meeting,  and  an  exhortation 
to  Friends  written  at  this  time  reads  as  follows : 

"As  divers  members  of  our  religious  Society,  some 
of  them  without  their  consent  or  knowledge,  have  been 
lately  nominated  to  attend  on  and  engage  in  some 
public  affairs,  which  they  cannot  undertake  without 
deviating  from  these  our  religious  principles;  we 
therefore  earnestly  beseech  and  advise  them,  and  kll 
others,  to  consider  the  end  and  purpose  of  every  measure 
to  which  they  are  desired  to  become  parties,  and  with  great 
circumspection  and  care,  to  guard  against  joining  in  any,  for 
the  asserting  and  maintaining  our  rights  and  liberties  which, 
on  mature  deliberation,  appear  not  to  be  dictated  by  that 
"wisdom  which  is  from  above;  which  is  pure,  peaceable, 
gentle,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits." 

The  closing  of  the  port  of  Boston  by  the  crown,  and  the 
imposition  of  a  penalty  incensed  the  people,  and  other 
aggressive  acts  brought  on  the  war,  and  left  the  Quakers  in  a 
most  unfortunate  position.  No  Quaker  was  ever  proved  a 
coward.  As  a  body  they  could  not  fight  on  principle,  and 
it  was  their  religious  duty  to  advise  against  it.  They  had 
always  been  loyal  to  the  king,  George  III.,  and,  doubtless 


IN  WAR  TIME 


559 


many  were  in  sympathy  with  the  Colony ;  but  as  a  body  they 
decided  on  absolute  neutrality,  and  withdrew  from  partici- 
pation. None  but  brave  men  could  have  done  this.  As  a 
result,  they  lost  control  of  Pennsylvania  and  other  places 
where  they  had  been  the  dominant  political  powers.  The 
echoes  of  the  guns  of  Bunker  Hill  had  not  died  away  before 
the  Pennsylvania  Quakers  began  to  raise  money  to  aid  their 
countrymen,  and  while  they  did  not  fight,  up  to  Septem- 
ber, 1776,  they  raised  about  sixteen  thousand  dollars. 

It  was  now  that  the  "Free  Quakers"  came  into  notice, 
young  Friends  who  took  up  arms  in  defense  of  the  Colony. 
As  soon  as  they  were  suspected  the  matter  was  taken  up  by 
the  meeting,  and  if  guilty,  they  were  disowned.  A  thou- 
sand disagreeable  features  presented  themselves,  and  the 
Quakers  were  rent  in  meetings  and  families  by 
the  many  interpretations  of  conscience.  Families  who  would 
not  contribute  to  the  war  were  forced  to  do  so  by  those  who 
had  no  patience  with  the  Quaker  non-fighting  idea.  They 
were  jailed  for  refusing  to  fight,  fined  for  not  taking  the 
oath.  Their  houses  were  looted  of  lead,  and  they  were 
hounded  and  abused  to  the  limit  of  endurance.  If  they 
refused  to  enlist  their  household  goods  were  taken.  Isaac 
Morris  of  Philadelphia  was  forced  to  pay  seventy-five 
pounds  for  refusing  the  oath,  and  a  boycott  was  established 
on  Quakers.  As  a  humiliation,  guns  were  tied  to  them,  and 
in  small  bodies  they  were  forced  to  march.  All  the  terrors 
of  1658  seem  to  have  returned.  The  Quakers  were  again 
on  the  unpopular  side. 

Their  enemies  even  forged  a  paper  purporting  to  give 
information  to  the  British  of  the  patriot  forces.  This  was 
signed  "Spanktown  Monthly  Meeting,"  and  was  taken  so 


560 


IN  WAR  TIME 


seriously,  though  an  arrant  forgery,  that  a  number  of 
Quakers  were  banished.   The  following  were  arrested : 

"1777,  Ninth  Month,  2nd.— William  Drewitt  Smith,  Thomas  Affleck, 
Thomas  Gilpin,  William  Lennox,  Alexander  Stedman,  Charles  Sted- 
man,  Samuel  Rowland  Fisher,  William  Inlay,  James  Pemberton,  Miers 
Fisher,  Thomas  Fisher,  Thomas  Wharton,  Edward  Pennington,  John 
Pemberton,  Owen  Jones,  Jr.,  Charles  Eddy,  Joseph  Fox,  Thomas 
Combe,  Jr.,  William  Smith,  broker. 

Ninth  Month,  3rd. — Henry  Drinker,  Charles  Jervis,  John  Galloway, 
William  Hollingshead,  E.  Ayres,  Phineas  Bond,  Thomas  Pike. 

Ninth  Month,  4th. — John  Hunt,  Israel  Pemberton,  Samuel  Pleas- 
ants. 

Ninth  Month,  5th.— Elijah  Brown." 

Passive  resistance  was  again  the  rule.  Soldiers 
used  the  meeting  houses  as  barracks,  and  the 
Friends  met  elsewhere  in  homes  or  barns. 
When  their  houses  were  looted,  their  grain  taken, 
their  horses,  seized  they  not  only  did  not  complain,  but  they 
refused  to  take  compensation.  In  a  word,  they  would  not, 
by  thought  or  deed,  aid  in  war,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  one 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  their  religious  life.  When 
the  British  entered  Philadelphia  they  paid  scant  courtesy 
to  the  "neutrals"  or  Quakers,  yet  when  the  Patriots  again 
took  the  city,  they  looked  upon  the  Quakers  as  Tories  or 
Tory  sympathizers,  and  hanged  two  of  them,  while  Robert 
Morris,  James  Wilson  and  Thomas  Mifflin  had  narrow 
escapes.  They  were  driven  from  their  homes,  stoned  and 
beaten,  and  life  made  a  continual  menace.  Their  financial 
losses  were,  doubtless,  over  one  million  dollars,  showing 
that  neutrality  during  the  American  Revolution  was  an  ex- 
pensive luxury. 

Through  the  long  war  the  Quakers  stood  by  their  moral 
code,  which  to-day  is  recognized  by  the  greatest  thinkers 


IN  WAR  TIME 


561 


as  not  only  practicable,  but  right;  and  at  the  close,  they 
took  up  their  philanthropic  work  for  the  education  of  the 
freedmen,  and  other  good  works  and  reforms.  They  were 
numerically  weakened  by  the  Free  Quakers,  who  now 
formed  meetings,  and  lived  as  Quakers  with  the  exception 
that  they  reserved  the  right  to  take  arms  in  defense  of  their 
country,  and  to  hold  office  in  the  state  or  government. 

The  last  attacks  made  upon  the  Quakers  came  in  1781, 
when  Lord  Cornwallis  surrendered  to  General  Washington. 
The  entire  country  was  aroused  to  a  fever  of  patriotism. 
The  Quakers  could  not,  under  their  code  of  morals,  rejoice 
and  they  did  not.  This  was  seized  upon  as  evidence  of 
Tory  sympathy,  and  they  were  attacked  on  all  sides,  their 
homes  despoiled  or  ruined.  Again  the  meeting  for  sufferings 
at  Philadelphia  presented  a  statement  to  the  President  and 
Executive  Council  and  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania, 
explaining  their  views;  that  they  could  not  fight  or  rejoice 
at  anything  appertaining  to  war.  They  used  all  the  argu- 
ments in  1780  which  the  great  peace  societies  are  using  to- 
day, yet  without  avail. 

In  1 782  came  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  a  better  un- 
derstanding of  the  Quakers  and  their  attitude  resulted. 
George  Washington  was  now  elected  President,  the  original 
confederation  of  states  giving  way  to  the  federal  constitu- 
tion. The  Quakers  were  always  loyal,  and  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment having  been  decided  on,  they  recognized  and  ac- 
knowledged it  in  a  loyal  and  patriotic  address  to  the  Presi- 
dent, in  which  they  explained  that  being  irrevocably  op- 
posed to  war  in  any  shape  or  form,  they  had  been  unable  to 
take  sides  or  even  declare  their  choice  for  or  against  the 
mother  country;  they  had  remained  absolutely  neutral.  This 
36 


562 


IN  WAR  TIME 


address  was  issued  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  held  in  Phila- 
delphia on  28th  of  9th  month  to  the  3rd  of  loth  month, 

1789. 

To  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  Address  of  the  Religious  Society  called  Quakers, 
from  their  Yearly  Meeting  for  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  and  the  Western  parts  of  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

"Being  met  in  this  our  annual  assembly,  for  the  well  ordering  the 
affairs  of  our  religious  Society,  and  the  promotion  of  universal  right- 
eousness, our  minds  have  been  drawn  to  consider,  that  the  Almghty, 
who  ruleth  in  heaven,  and  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  has  permitted  a 
great  revolution  to  take  place  in  the  government  of  this  country;  we 
are  fervently  concerned,  that  the  rulers  of  the  people  may  be  favoured 
with  the  counsel  of  God,  the  only  sure  means  of  enabling  them  to 
fulfil  the  important  trust  committed  to  their  charge;  and,  in  an  espe- 
cial manner,  that  divine  wisdom  and  grace,  vouchsafed  from  above, 
may  qualify  thee  to  fill  up  the  duties  of  the  exalted  station  to  which 
thou  art  appointed. 

"We  are  sensible  thou  has  obtained  great  place  in  the  esteem  and 
affections  of  people  of  all  denominations  over  whom  thou  presidest; 
and  many  eminent  talents  being  committed  to  thy  trust,  we  much 
desire  they  may  be  fully  devoted  to  the  Lord's  honour  and  service — 
that  thus  thou  mayst  be  a  happy  instrument  in  his  hand,  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  vice,  infidelity,  and  irreligion,  and  every  species  of  oppression 
on  the  persons  or  consciences  of  men,  so  that  righteousness  and 
peace,  which  truly  exalt  a  nation,  may  prevail  throughout  the  land, 
as  the  only  solid  foundation  that  can  be  laid  for  the  prosperity  and 
happiness  of  this  or  any  country. 

"The  free  toleration  which  the  citizens  of  these  States  enjoy,  in 
the  public  worship  of  the  Almighty,  agreeable  to  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences,  we  esteem  among  the  choicest  of  blessings;  and  as  we 
desire  to  be  filled  with  fervent  charity  for  those  who  differ  from  us 
in  matters  of  faith  and  practice,  believing  that  the  general  assembly  of 
saints  is  composed  of  the  sincere  and  upright-hearted  of  all  nations, 
kingdoms,  and  people;  so,  we  trust,  we  may  justly  claim  it  from  others; 
and  in  a  full  persuasion  that  the  divine  principle  we  profess,  leads  unto 
harmony  and  concord,  we  can  take  no  part  in  carrying  on  war  on  any 
occasion,  or  under  any  power,  but  are  bound  in  conscience  to  lead 
quiet  and  peaceable  lives,  in  godliness  and  honesty  among  men,  con- 

r' 

* 


IN  WAR  TIME 


563 


tributing  freely  our  proportion  to  the  indigencies  of  the  poor,  and 
to  the  necessary  support  of  civil  government,  acknowledging  those 
who  rule  well  to  be  worthy  of  double  honour,  and  if  any  professing 
with  us  are,  or  have  been,  of  a  contrary  disposition  and  conduct,  we 
owe  them  not  therein;  having  never  been  chargeable  from  our  first 
establishment  as  a  religious  Society,  with  fomenting  or  countenancing 
tumults  or  conspiracies,  or  disrespect  to  those  who  are  placed  in 
authority  over  us. 

"We  wish  not  improperly  to  intrude  on  thy  time  or  patience,  nor 
is  it  our  practice  to  offer  adulation  to  any;  but  as  we  are  a  people 
whose  principles  and  conduct  have  been  misrepresented  and  traduced, 
we  take  the  liberty  to  assure  thee  that  we  feel  our  hearts  affection- 
ately drawn  towards  thee,  and  those  in  authority  over  us,  with  prayers, 
that  thy  presidency  may  under  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  be  happy  to 
thyself  and  to  the  people;  that  through  the  increase  of  morality  and 
true  religion,  Divine  Providence  may  condescend  to  look  down  upon 
our  land  with  a  propitious  eye,  and  bless  the  inhabitants  with  the  con- 
tinuance of  peace,  the  dew  of  Heaven,  and  the  fatness  of  the  earth, 
and  enable  us  gratefully  to  acknowledge  his  manifold  mercies:  and  it 
is  our  earnest  concern,  that  He  may  be  pleased  to  grant  thee  every 
necessary  qualification  to  nil  thy  weighty  and  important  station  to  his 
glory;  and,  that  finally,  when  all  terrestrial  honours  shall  fail  and  pass 
away,  thou  and  thy  respectable  consort  may  be  found  worthy  to  re- 
ceive a  crown  of  unfading  righteousness  in  the  mansions  of  peace  and 
joy  forever, 

"Signed  in  and  on  behalf  of  the  said  meeting,  held  in  Philadelphia 
by  adjournments,  from  the  28th  of  the  Ninth  Month,  to  the  3rd  of  the 
Tenth  Month  inclusive,  1789." 

"Nicholas  Wain,  Clerk." 
To  this  the  President  replied  as  follows : 

"The  answer  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  the  Address 
'  of  the  Religious  Society  called  Quakers,  from  their  Yearly  Meeting 
for  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  the  Western  Parts  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia. 

"Gentlemen, — I  receive  with  pleasure  your  affectionate  address,  and 
thank  you  for  the  friendly  sentiments  and  good  wishes  which  you  ex- 
press for  the  success  of  my  administration,  and  for  my  personal  hap- 
piness. 

"We  have  reason  to  rejoice  for  the  prospect,  that  the  national  gov- 
ernment, which,  by  the  favour  of  Divine  Providence,  was  formed  by 
common  councils,  and  peaceably  established  with  the  common  consent 
of  the  people,  will  prove  a  blessing  to  every  denomination  of  them;  to 


564 


IN  WAR  TIME 


render  it  such,  my  best  endeavours  shall  not  be  wanting.  Government 
being  among  other  purposes  instituted  to  protect  the  persons  and 
consciences  of  men  from  oppression,  it  certainly  is  the  duty  of  rulers, 
not  only  to  abstain  from  it  themselves,  but  according  to  their  stations 
to  prevent  it  in  others. 

''The  liberty  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  these  States  of  worshipping 
Almighty  God  agreeably  to  their  consciences,  is  not  only  among  the 
choicest  of  their  blessings,  but  also  of  their  rights;  while  men  perform 
their  social  duties  faithfully,  they  do  all  that  society  or  the  state  can 
with  propriety  expect  or  demand,  and  remain  responsible  only  to  their 
Maker  for  the  religion  or  mode  of  faith  which  they  may  prefer  or 
profess. 

"Your  principes  and  conduct  are  well  known  to  me;  and  it  is  doing 
the  people  called  Quakers  no  more  than  justice  to  say  that  (except 
their  declining  to  share  with  others,  the  burthen  of  the  common  de- 
fence) there  is  no  denomination  among  us  w^ho  are  more  exemplary 
and  useful  citizens.  I  assure  you  very  explicitly  that  in  my  opinion,  the 
conscientious  scruples  of  all  men  should  be  treated  with  great  deli- 
cacy and  tenderness;  and  it  is  my  wish  and  desire,  that  the  laws  may 
always  be  as  extensively  accommodated  to  them,  as  due  regard  to  the 
protection  and  essential  interests  of  the  nation  may  justify  and  permit. 

(Signed)       "George  Washington." 

The  modern  Quakers  would  not  fight,  but  they  served 
nobly  in  every  other  capacity.  The  Quakers  worked  in  hos- 
pitals, on  the  field  as  nurses,  in  the  great  sanitary  commis- 
sions to  aid  the  wounded.  They  supplied  large  sums  for  aid 
in  all  directions,  and  after  the  war  they  did  yeoman's  service 
during  the  reconstructive  period.  The  Quakers  of  New 
England  Yearly  Meeting  recognized  the  fact  that  the  negro 
was  unfitted  for  citizenship,  and  many  of  them,  earnest  in 
their  belief  that  Abraham  Lincoln  had  made  a  mistake  in 
giving  this  vast  horde  of  slaves  full  rights  of  citizenship 
without  any  preparation,  established  schools  in  various  sec- 
tions for  the  education  of  the  negro,  proposing  to  prepare 
him  for  the  citizenship  that  had  come  to  him  so  suddenly. 
One  of  these  was  called  the  Freedmans  School.    It  was 


IN  WAR  TIME  565 

established  in  Washington,  where  a  little  band  of  Quakers 
from  the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  began  the  educa- 
tion of  the  negro,  old  and  young, — a  most  difficult  and  un- 
promising work. 

This  was  carried  on  for  years,  and  hundreds  of  negroes 
given  a  fundamental  training.  In  this  large  school  under 
the  direction  of  a  committee  of  the  New  England  Meeting, 
of  whom  Charles  F.  Coffin,  Maria  Coffin,  Joseph 
Grinnell  of  New  Bedford,  Edward  and  Annie  B. 
Earle  of  Worcester,  Hannah  G.  Gove,  John  Chase 
Gove,  of  Lynn,  and  others,  served  as  members, 
the  latter  having  for  several  years  the  directing 
control.  This  work  of  the  Quakers  was  illustrative  of  their 
activities  in  many  directions  immediately  following  the  war; 
and  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  name  Quaker  is  a  syno- 
nym of  honor,  fidelity  and  faithfulness  throughout  the 
world.  The  anti-war  theories  of  the  Quakers  which  had 
their  beginning  in  1656  in  America  with  the  entrance  of 
Christopher  Holder  and  his  little  band,  were  two  and  a  half 
centuries  ahead  of  their  time;  but  like  many  other  views 
have  been  recognized  as  an  anticipation  of  great  and  funda- 
mental truths. 

•  In  the  American  War  of  the  Rebellion  of  the  sixties,  the 
attitude  of  the  Quakers  concerning  war  remained  unchanged 
with  this  exception:  thousands  of  men  and  women  of  all 
sects  and  denominations  had  been  convinced  that  the  war 
was  not  only  hell,  as  General  Sherman  forcibly  expressed  it, 
but  that  it  was  a  crime,  a  remnant  of  barbarism.  I  have 
recently  listened  to  a  notable  address  given  by  David  Starr 
Jordan,  who  took  the  biological  side  of  the  argument  that 
the  best  physically,  the  most  virile  of  the  young  men  were 


566  IN  WAR  TIME 

killed  in  the  wars  of  all  countries.  The  weaklings  were 
left  at  home  to  perpetuate  the  race,  which  resulted  in  a  con- 
tinual repression  of  the  normal  tendency  of  nature  to  im- 
prove and  produce  a  higher,  better  and  stronger  race.  To- 
day there  are  peace  societies  of  various  kinds  in  every  large 
country — England,  the  continent  and  America,  and  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women  of  all  denominations  are  working 
and  legislating  to  make  this  doctrine  of  the  Quakers  a  law. 
They  will  succeed.  War  will  cease  by  the  agreement  of 
great  nations,  and  laws  preventing  great  capitalists,  as  the 
Rothschilds  and  others,  from  loaning  nations  money  to  carry 
on  war  will  be  agreed  on.  Armies  will  then  be  reduced  to  a 
size  sufficient  only  for  national  police. 

The  Quakers  were  often  drafted  during  the  Civil  W^ar 
in  America,  on  both  sides,  but  they  refused  to  fight,  while 
there  were  many  free  Quakers  who  in  i860  held  the  opinion 
James  Logan  entertained  during  the  Revolution.  The 
author's  father,  Dr.  Joseph  Bassett  Holder,  entered  the 
army,  and  served  during  the  entire  war  at  the  Dry  Tortugas, 
Florida,  as  surgeon,  saving  many  lives  by  his  skill  in  fight- 
ing yellow  fever,  and  sacrificed  the  best  years  of  his  life  in 
caring  for  the  physical  needs  of  prisoners  and  soldiers.  He 
was  never  disowned  by  the  New  York  Meeting,  of  which 
he  was  a  member  at  his  death  in  1888,  suggestive  of  the 
change  of  sentiment. 

Many  Friends  and  descendants  of  Friends  fought  on  both 
sides  in  this  unfortimate  war  of  brothers,  but  the  main  body 
held  to  their  principles  and  were  non-combatants.  Charles 
D.  Gove,  a  Friend,  w^as  forced  into  the  Confederate  army; 
and  many  Northern  Friends  were  drafted,  especially  in 
Indiana,  where  some  paid  the  two  hundred  dollars  exempt 


IN  WAR  TIME 


567 


fine.  But  Allen  Jay,  who  was  drafted,  would  not  go  to 
war,  would  not  pay  or  fight,  so  his  farm  was  offered  for  sale. 
Governor  Morton  spoke  to  President  Lincoln  and  the  sale 
was  stopped.    This,  doubtless,  occurred  in  many  instances. 

The  attitude  of  the  Friends  in  the  17th  century  was  that 
war  was  a  crime  against  humanity  and  inexcusable.  In 
the  19th  century  John  Bright  took  up  the  slogan  and  fought 
against  it  with  all  the  power  of  his  marvelous  eloquence, 
wit  and  sarcasm.  To-day,  in  1913,  the  keenest  and  most 
logical  minds  recognize  the  wisdom  of  the  early  Quaker 
idea  of  peace,  and  all  the  abuse  the  Quakers  re- 
ceived during  two  hundred  years,  the  charges  of 
cowardice  in  1776  from  the  patriots,  treason  from 
the  Tories,  melt  away  before  the  modern  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  millenium  is  at  hand  and 
that  in  the  days  to  come  capital  will  be  controlled,  and  two 
or  three  governments  gathering  together  in  the  name  of  God 
and  humanity,  will  demand  that  the  warring  nations  submit 
their  contentions  to  arbitration.  What  is  being  done  to-day 
to  this  end  is  due  to  many  men ;  but  it  is  well  to  remember 
Albert  K.  Smiley  and  the  Mohonk  Conference,  Andrew 
Carnegie  and  his  great  work  for  arbitration;  the  labors  of 
David  Starr  Jordan,  and  the  90,000  of  American  Friends 
who  C3,iry  on  the  work  of  their  ancestors  quietly  and  surely. 
The  thanks  of  the  world  and  humanity  are  due  to  men  like 
Carnegie,  Ginn  and  others,  and  to  women  like  Mrs.  Russell 
Sage  and  other  promotors  of  peace. 

The  World  Peace  Foundation,  founded  by  Edwin  Ginn, 
was  permanently  organized  in  July,  1910,  and  incorporated 
later  in  the  same  year.  The  trustees  of  the  Foundation  are 
Edwin  Ginn,  President  Lowell  of  Harvard  University,  Pres- 


568 


IN  WAR  TIME 


ident  Faunce  of  Brown  University,  President  Swain  of 
Swarthmore  College,  Professor  Samuel  T.  Button  of  Colum- 
bia University,  Miss  Sarah  Louise  Arnold,  dean  of  Simmons 
College,  Rev.  Edward  Cummings,  Hon.  Samuel  W.  McCall, 
George  A.  Plimpton  of  New  York,  George  W.  Anderson, 
Samuel  B.  Capen  and  Albert  E.  Pillsbury  of  Boston.  The 
directors  are  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  Edwin  D.  Mead, 
James  Brown  Scott,  Rev.  Charles  R.  Brown,  James  A. 
Macdonald,  John  R.  Mott  and  Hamilton  Holt.  The  treas- 
urer is  Richard  H.  Dana. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE  IN  AMERICA. 

The  home  life  of  Quakers,  that  has  a  charm  and  individ- 
uality difficult  to  describe,  began  at  Sandwich,  Mass.,  where 
Christopher  Holder  made  his  first  converts,  preached  in  the 
Allen,  Wing,  Ewer  and  other  homes,  then  in  "Christopher's 
Hollow" — the  first  Friends'  "meeting-house"  in  America. 
In  the  early  days,  before  there  were  meeting-houses,  the 
Friends  met  in  the  homes.  In  1901,  my  kinswoman.  Miss 
Sarah  Hacker,  in  a  paper  before  the  Lynn  Historical  Soci- 
ety, stated  that  the  first  yearly  meeting  in  America  was  held 
in  the  home  of  our  forebear,  Mathew  Estes  (d'Estes)  of 
Salem,  of  whom  as  children  we  read,  "Mathew  Estes  dis- 
traited  of  three  pewter  plates,  pine  boards,  one  silver  spoon 
and  sundries  to  the  amount  of  two  pounds  for  priests  dues." 
Dr.  Rufus  Jones,  of  Haverford,  has  shown  the  date  to  be 
otherwise. 

One  cannot  well  describe  the  homes  of  others,  and  I  regret 
that  I  cannot  paint  a  word  picture  of  the  Quaker  homes 
,1  knew  in  the  19th  century  in  New  Bedford,  Providence, 
Newport,  Lynn,  New  York  and  London. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Quakers  increased  rapidly  in  New 
England,  and  Yearly  Meetings  are  found  to-day  in  Canada, 
New  York,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  California,  Oregon, 
Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  North  Carolina  and  Ohio. 

The  Quakers,  as  a  rule,  were  prosperous.  I  do  not  recall 
a  poor  one,  and  a  pauper  would  have  been  an  impossibility. 
A  typical  home  of  the  1850-period  is  described  by  Dr. 


570  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


Joseph  Bassett  Holder  of  Lynn.  The  house  was  built, 
doubtless,  in  1690,  by  the  author's  great  grandfather,  Rich- 
ard Holder: 

"As  I  remember  our  old  homestead,  its  characteristics 
were  similar  to  many  of  the  colonial  houses  of  the  18th  cen- 
tury. There  was  a  large  chimney  in  the  centre,  with  ample 
fireplaces  and  a  very  wide  panel  for  the  back  of  the  fireplace. 
The  latter  was  faced  with  ancient  Chinese  tiling,  the  delicate 
blue  producing  a  beautiful  effect  (one  of  these  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  author).  The  ceiling  with  boxed  beams, 
the  center  beam  running  through  the  middle  of  the  ceiling 
being  wide  and  handsomely  boxed.  The  buffet  was  a  strik- 
ing feature,  and  when  I  built,  it  was  taken  out  and  placed 
in  the  house  which  now  stands  on  the  corner  of  Sagamore 
and  Nahant  Streets.  It  was  better  than  the  average.  It 
occupied  the  outer  corner  of  the  drawing  room.  The  wood- 
work was  finished  in  mouldings,  the  open  part  having  a 
round  finishing  at  top,  and  the  closet  at  the  bottom,  with 
panel  doors.  On  the  inside  at  the  top,  the  roof  was  lathed 
and  plastered,  to  form  a  concave  or  spoon-shaped  structure. 
Neatly  cut  or  scalloped  shelves  were  placed  at  intervals. 
The  contents  of  this  buffet  at  this  time  would  delight  the 
eye  now ;  a  rich  silver  tankard  of  ancient  pattern,  solid  and 
valuable,  quaint  silver  spoons,  and  other  objects,  great  rows 
of  old  blue  china  and  delf,  with  many  other  pieces  brought 
from  abroad  and  heirlooms  in  the  family  from  the  time  of 
Daniel  Holder  of  Nantucket  in  1750. 

"The  old  house  was  furnished  handsomely,  indeed  richly, 
the  sofa,  chairs  and  tables  being  solid  mahogany  with  gray 
Friendly  tint  coverings  with  a  brave  array  of  brass-headed 
tacks.    It  would  have  been  rich  even  to-day  with  its  quaint 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


571 


pieces  and  ornaments  of  brass;  yet  over  all  was  the  air  of 
dignity  which  characterizes  the  homes  of  Friends  every- 
where. In  the  corner  was  a  high  clock,  and  in  another  an 
ancient  desk,  which  belonged  to  my  great  grandfather,  Dan- 
iel Holder,  the  shipbuilder,  of  Nantucket,  having  been  made 
some  time  in  1700.  (This  desk,  here  shown,  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  author.)  Another  piece  of  ancient  furni- 
ture was  a  black  spindle-leg  table  which  belonged  to  Grand- 
father Breed  (1690).  The  house,  as  near  as  can  be  deter- 
mined, was  built  by  Richard  Holder  about  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  though  others  believe  that  it 
was  built  by  Grandfather  Breed  in  1690." 

Dr.  J.  Holder  also  gives  this  description  of  the  Holder 
family  country  home  in  Uxbridge,  Massachusetts.  They 
were  pronounced  Abolitionists  and  often  entertained 
William  Loyd  Garrison:  "The  old  home  at  this  time  was 
a  central  point  in  several  senses.  Our  grandparents,  Joseph 
and  Rachael  Bassett,  were  prominent  members  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Friends  of  Uxbridge  Monthly  Meeting,  worshipping 
in  the  'Old  Brick'  meeting-house,  which  was  situated  in  the 
south  part  of  the  town.  Their  house  was  a  special  resort 
for  Friends  on  all  occasions  of  travel  or  ceremony.  A  goodly 
•number  of  Friends  resided  in  Northbridge.  The  old  car- 
riage house  and  cider  mill  attached  was  then  an  interesting 
structure,  affording  a  place  to  the  family  vehicles.  Some- 
thing between  a  hackney  coach  and  a  mail  wagon  was  the 
form  of  the  family  carriage.  Well  built  and  generous  in 
dimensions,  wondrous  most  in  heavy  leathern  thorough- 
braces  and  backbends,  its  carrying  capacity  being  for  six 
persons.  The  jaunty,  coach-like  aspect,  was  complete  in  its 
canary-yellow  painted  exterior,  when  equipped  for  a  jour- 


572 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


ney,  with  its  out-riding  racks  for  baggage.  The  emergen- 
cies of  winter  were  provided  for  in  the  great  double  sleigh, 
a  large  affair  on  two  sets  of  runners;  altogether  a  winter 
counterpart  of  the  wheel  vehicle,  not  omitting  the  canary- 
yellow.  In  very  inclement  weather  the  carriage  top  was 
mounted  on  the  sleigh  runners,  and  thus  a  comfortable  cov- 
ered vehicle  was  had.  My  memory  vividly  includes  riding 
to  meeting  in  this  carriage." 

The  Quaker  homes  were  very  much  alike,  comfortable, 
even  luxurious ;  and  my  impression  as  a  child  of  that  of  my 
paternal  grandfather  is  a  long  dining  room  with  rows  of 
silver  and  pewter,  and  often  from  five  to  ten  or  more  guests 
at  dinner.  Hospitality  was  one  of  the  Quaker  virtues,  and 
there  was  nothing  "simple"  or  ''plain"  about  the  Lynn 
Quaker  table  of  my  many  kinsmen  or  acquaintances.  There 
were  always  Quaker  ministers  travelling  through  the  town 
on  ''concerns"  and  being  entertained;  Friends  from  the  West 
and  from  England  and  local  Friends  visiting,  or  many  com- 
ing home  to  dinner  at  fourth  day  or  first  day,  or  at  the 
Monthly  or  Quarterly  Meetings. 

Quaker  visitors  never  went  to  a  hotel,  no  matter  how 
many  there  were.  Each  Quaker  home  had  from  one  to  a 
number  of  "spare"  rooms,  which  were  entirely  devoted  to 
guests.  The  life  of  the  Quaker  was  consistent  and  safe- 
guarded day  by  day.  In  the  home,  the  family  conducted 
itself  on  week-days  as  on  Sunday.  There  was  a  conscien- 
tious attempt  to  live  up  to  the  Ten  Commandments.  The 
"pernicious"  gaieties  of  life  were  eliminated.  There  was 
no  music  or  dancing,  no  theatres  or  gay  dressing,  little  or  no 
jewelry;  the  only  difference  between  the  poor  Quaker  and 
the  rich  Quaker  being  that  the  latter  had,  perhaps,  more 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


brown  or  drab  or  black  silk  dresses  and  bonnets.  The  cos- 
tume of  the  women  consisted  of  a  plain  brown,  black  or 
drab  dress  either  of  poplin  or  silk ;  the  neck  was  cut  low,  but 
completely  covered  with  a  white  muslin  handkerchief,  and 
over  the  shoulders  was  worn  a  cream-white  raw-silk  shawl. 
On  the  head  was  worn  a  muslin  cap  tied  beneath  the  chin. 
The  bonnet  was  a  "poke,"  not  a  thing  of  beauty,  really  an 
extraordinary  creation,  yet  when  filled  by  the  sweet,  often 
beautiful  and  always  spiritual  faces  of  the  Quaker  women, 
the  strange  head-gear  lost  its  incongruity,  and  lent  dignity 
to  the  wearer.  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  that  these  bon- 
nets had  to  be  made  at  a  certain  shop  in  Philadelphia,  and 
that  the  ''Gurneyite"  shape  was  the  vogue  in  my  particular 
family.  There  were  several  types,  this  and  the  Wilburite. 
This  bonnet  was  either  black  or  drab,  or  a  rich  brown,  and 
matched  the  shawl  or  the  gown,  and  while  it  was  most 
trying  in  its  severity,  without  the  slightest  ornament,  it  was 
always  rich.  Curiously  enough,  the  general  shape  of  the 
English  or  American  Quaker  bonnet  came  into  general  use 
in  1849-50;  the  only  difference  between  them  and  the  fash- 
ionable prototype  being  that  they  were  in  gay  colors  and 
bore  ornaments,  as  ostrich  or  bird  of  Paradise  feathers.  The 
shape  was  the  same,  judging  from  a  fashion  plate  from  the 
Conseiller  des  Dames  of  Paris. 

The  most  beautiful  and  expensive  silks  and  shawls  were 
used  for  occasions  of  dress,  and  an  air  of  elegance  charac- 
ized  the  Quaker  woman.  Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
imagine  more  commanding  and  beautiful  women  than  Eliz- 
abeth Fry  of  England,  or  in  my  own  State  of  Masssachu- 
setts  or  vicinity,  Sybil  Jones,  Hannah  G.  Gove  of  Lynn, 
Rachael  Howland  of  New  Bedford,  Eunice  Boyce,  Mary 


574  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


Breed  or  Avis  Keene  of  Lynn.  The  poke  bonnet  was  more 
of  a  ceremonial  bonnet.  There  was  another  called  the  drawn 
bonnet,  worn  on  less  important  days,  and  there  was  an  oiled 
silk  cord  for  the  poke  bonnet  for  inclement  weather,  and 
long,  profoundly  impressive,  almost  military  cloaks. 

It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  Friends  innocently  lost 
sight  of  the  fact  that  "richness"  was  really  a  "vanity;"  but 
they  seemed  to  find  the  desired  plainness  of  costume  in  the 
cut  and  color,  as  the  women  I  knew  the  best  all  had  in  their 
plain  clothes  the  finest  and  richest  silks  which  Philadelphia 
could  afford.  This  was  true  of  the  attire  of  the  men.  My 
great  grandfather,  Richard  Holder  of  Nantucket,  later  of 
Lynn  is  described  by  my  father: — "He  was  fond  of  horses 
and  kept  quite  an  establishment  for  the  day,  driving  a  two- 
wheeled  chaise,  the  body  of  which  was  painted  pink,  yellow 
and  brown,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time.  He  was 
a  prominent  Quaker,  sat  upon  the  high  seat,  and  dressed  in 
the  height  of  Friendly  garb,  coat,  hat,  breeches,  and  silver 
shoe  buckles."  These  buckles  would  have  caused  his  dis- 
ownment  fifty  years  previous. 

In  the  next  generation,  nineenth  century,  the  costume  of 
the  man  in  New  England  and  New  York  City  was  usually 
a  black  broadcloth  coat,  with  standing  collar,  often  faced 
with  velvet,  no  buttons  behind,  and  cut  away  in  front,  a 
black  silk  or  a  white  muslin  necktie,  and  a  silk  hat  with  a 
brim  a  little  broader  than  usual.  Some  Quakers  wore  drab 
coats  of  broadcloth,  and  the  very  best  was  the  first  day 
attire,  and  as  with  the  women,  it  was  the  best.  In  a  word, 
the  Quakers  were  "plainly"  but  "elegantly"  dressed,  as  be- 
came men  of  possible  wealth  and  position.  If  this  commu- 
nity of  one  thousand  could  have  been  compared  to  one  thou- 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE  575 


sand  non-Quakers,  selected  at  random,  I  should  say  that  the 
Quakers  would  have  exceeded  them  in  culture,  refinement 
and  education.  They  were  naturally  cultivated,  and  many  of 
them  in  Lynn,  Salem,  Providence,  New  Bedford  and  Phila- 
delphia, constituted  the  aristocracy  of  the  cities  in  which 
they  lived;  but  would  have  been  inexpressibly  shocked  if 
they  had  known  it  or  had  been  accused  of  it.  They  led  in 
the  gentle  arts,  often  in  wealth,  in  family  and  in  lineage, 
and  more  than  often  in  the  quiet  richness  and  beauty  of 
their  homes. 

The  life  of  the  Quaker  in  some  way  gave  the  people  a 
sweetness  and  refinement,  an  innate  aristocratic  bearing  that 
distinguished  them  from  all  other  classes ;  and  it  was  a 
true,  fine  feeling,  as  in  the  meeting  and  in  social  life,  the  rich 
Quaker  never  felt  above  the  poor  Quaker.  The  only  divid- 
ing line  between  them  was  the  one  found  everywhere,  and 
which  makes  class,  namely,  the  variations  of  culture.  Those 
of  like  grades  of  culture,  education  and  refinement  became 
social  intimates,  though  not  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  others ; 
but  there  was  this  difference.  The  home  life  was  particu- 
larly charming.  The  families  were  often  large,  and  very 
social,  * 'spending  the  day,"  sewing  societies,  among  the 
•women,  reading  societies,  literary  societies,  at  which  such 
men  as  Gould  Brown  of  grammar  fame  and  others  figured, 
charitable  societies  of  all  kinds,  and  philanthropic  work  took 
the  place  of  balls,  card  parties  and  dancing. 

As  I  look  back  to  my  youth  in  Lynn,  I  do  not  recall  hav- 
ing many  friends  outside  of  the  Society.  We  were  never 
told  not  to  associate  with  others,  but  it  came  about  natur- 
ally. One  of  my  first  recollections  was  the  Boston  Old 
Guard,  wearing  their  bear-skin  caps,  coming  down  the  street 


576  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


during  the  Fremont  campaign.  As  they  appoached,  my 
grandmother,  Rachael  Bassett  Holder,  who  was  a  minister, 
came  out  of  the  house  and  led  me  in  that  I,  as  a  child,  might 
not  see  the  evidence  and  panoply  of  war. 

The  Friends  were  particularly  appreciative  of  the  aged, 
and  the  elderly  Friends  and  ministers  were  held  in  the  high- 
est respect  and  veneration,  honored  in  every  way,  and  never 
considered  too  old  to  give  good  advice.  Julia  Ward  Howe 
refers  to  this.  She  "never  saw  in  all  her  travels  such  uni- 
versal respect  and  deference  from  youth  to  age,  as  in  the 
Society  of  Friends."  My  kinswoman.  Miss  Sarah  Hacker, 
a  descendant  of  the  famous  Major  Hacker  of  Cromwell's 
time,  refers  to  the  Lynn  Meeting  as  she  and  I  knew  it : 

*"It  may  interest  you  to  know  the  names  of  some  of  the 
men  and  women  who  sat  on  the  "high  seats,"  as  they  were 
called  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  I  have  spoken  of 
Micajah  Collins,  one  of  the  earliest.  With  him,  and  com- 
ing down  one  or  two  generations  are  the  following: — 
Mathew  Purinton,  Estes  Newhall,  Daniel  Johnson,  Charles 
Chase,  James  Purinton,  Moses  Bede,  Samuel  Boyce,  Nathan 
Breed,  Micajah  Pratt,  John  B.  Chase,  William  Breed  and 
Benj.  Jones;  while  on  the  facing  seat,  though  not  ministers 
or  elders,  were  Newhall  Breed,  Theophilus,  William  and 
Jacob  Chase,  John  Bailey,  David  Rodman,  Moses  Breed, 
Samuel  Neal,  John  C.  Gove.  On  the  women's  side  sat 
Betsy  Purinton,  wife  of  Matthew  Purinton,  and  Mary  New- 
hall, Avis  Keene,  Hannah  Collins,  Jane  Mansfield,  Eliz- 
abeth Breed,  Ruth  Bassett,  Miriam  Newhall,  Rachel  Bas- 
sett Holder,  Olive  Oliver,  Mary  E.  Breed,  Eliza  Boyce, 

*Paper  read  before  the  Lynn  Historical  Society. 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


577 


Hannah  Paige,  Abigail  Beede  and  Abby  W.  Pratt,  while 
on  the  facing  seat  was  Sarah  Breed,  Amy  Bassett  Breed  and 
Miriam  Breed  Johnson. 

David  Rodman  was  Librarian  of  the  Friends  Library, 
which  they  used  to  have  for  a  time  in  the  gallery  of  the 
meeting-house.  Charles  Coffin  for  many  years  made  Lynn 
his  home,  and  was  regarded  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  best, 
minister  of  his  time  in  Lynn." 

The  names  above  mentioned  were  some  of  the  leaders 
among  Friends  and  representatives  of  the  old  aristocracy  of 
the  New  England  Friends. 

There  was  a  delightful  optimism  in  the  family,  a  cheer- 
fulness and  courtesy  between  members  that  could  not  fail  to 
impress  one.  All  the  trials  and  tribulations  of  the  world 
seemed  to  pass  over  the  heads  of  the  Quakers,  and  their  life 
was,  in  the  main,  unruffled.  The  Quaker  was  the  ideal  citi- 
zen. I  once  looked  over  the  private  record  of  a  large  meet- 
ing for  a  century,  and  during  all  this  time  no  Quaker  in  that 
community  had  committed  a  serious  crime,  or  broken  a  law. 
The  record  of  a  clean,  moral  bill  of  health  was  almost  un- 
believable, due  to  the  unrelaxing  supervision  of  ministers, 
parents  and  committee.  The  parents  inculcated  not  only 
the  simple  life,  but  the  life  and  example  of  Christ  in  the 
cliildren,  while  the  meeting  and  its  committee  looked  after 
the  conduct  of  the  parents,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  every 
Friend  to  acquaint  the  meeting  with  any  defection.  The 
meeting-house  was  the  hub  of  the  wheel  of  righteousness,  the 
home  was  the  axle. 

The  meeting-house  at  Lynn  was  a  long  rectangular  build- 
ing, the  interior  fitted  with  bench  seats  polished  white.  The 
women  sat  on  one  side,  the  men  on  the  other,  and  between 
37 


578 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


them  were  doors  or  shutters  which  could  be  pulled  down, 
dividing  the  meeting.  There  was  a  "high  seat"  extending 
along  the  entire  building  for  the  accepted  ministers,  a  lower 
one  for  elders,  and  a  facing  seat  for  distinguished  guests,  not 
ministers.  In  the  center  was  a  high  stove  in  winter.  The 
seats  were  well  cushioned  with  drab  or  dark  green,  and  the 
effect  was  attractive  and  even  beautiful.  In  this  meeting- 
house distinguished  Friends  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries,  American  and  European  met,  Joseph  John  Gurney, 
Stanley  Pumphrey,  Bevan  Braithwaite  and  others,  and  there 
were  always  from  five  to  eight  ministers  on  either  seat. 

First-Day  (Sunday)  meeting  was  always  well  attended. 
Friends  gathered  early,  and  in  the  big  porch  or  on  the 
grounds  met  and  lingered  in  social  converse  until  the  time 
of  meeting.  Then  they  gradually  took  their  seats,  the 
women  on  one  side,  the  men  on  the  other,  and  the  service 
began.  There  were  always  a  few  men,  even  in  1870-80,  or 
later,  who  did  not  remove  their  hats,  and  many  more  who 
wore  them  a  few  moments.  At  rare  intervals  the  meeting 
would  be  one  of  entire  silence;  but  generally  there  would 
be  several  prayers,  and  one  or  two  excellent,  always  extem- 
poraneous sermons.  Some  of  the  old  Friends,  in  preaching, 
fell  into  a  sing-song  method  of  delivery.  The  hat  was 
always  removed  during  prayer  or  sermon ;  but  the  congrega- 
tion never  bowed  the  head,  knelt  or  stood  up.  The  test  of 
an  hour's  silence  was  often  a  supreme  one  for  young  people. 
The  members  of  the  congregation  or  any  visitor  were  at  lib- 
erty to  speak;  but  if  the  language  of  the  visitor  was  intem- 
perate or  not  in  accord  with  the  custom,  the  speaker  was  re- 
quested to  be  seated,  and  if  he  insisted,  he  was  gently  but 
forcibly  led  out. 


r 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


It  was  from  this  promiscuous  speaking  in  the  body  of  the 
meeting  that  ministers  were  "discovered,"  as  ministers  were 
never  paid,  nor  were  they  supposed  to  prepare  themselves  in 
advance.  To  quote,  "We  consider  the  gift  of  the  ministry 
to  be  of  so  pure  and  sacred  a  nature  that  no  payment  should 
be  made  for  its  exercise,  and  that  it  never  ought  to  be  under- 
taken for  pecuniary  remuneration."  "Anyone  who  felt 
moved  thereunto  had  the  privilege  of  addressing  the  meeting, 
and  after  a  certain  time,  if  the  "testimony"  borne  by  the 
Friend  met  with  approval,  he  or  she  was  recommended  to 
the  Monthly  Meeting  by  the  select  preparative  meeting  of 
ministers  and  elders,  and,  if  the  Monthly  Meeting,  after 
deliberate  consideration,  should  unite  in  believing  that  a 
gift  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  has  been  committed  to  him 
or  her,  a  minute  expression  thereof  should  be  forwarded  to 
the  Quarterly  Meeting  of  ministers  and  elders,  when  the  case 
being  "solidly  weighed"  and  the  sense  of  the  Monthly  Meet- 
ing concurred  with,  information  thereof  should  be  sent  to 
the  Monthly  Meeting,  also  to  the  preparation  meeting  of 
ministers  and  elders,  of  which  the  individual  is  to  be  a  mem- 
ber. And  until  the  approbation  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting 
of  ministers  and  elders  is  obtained,  no  such  Friend  is  to  be 
received  as  a  minister  "or  travel  abroad  as  a  minister." 

There  was  a  charm  about  the  Quaker  meetings  of  the 
ancient  type  which  cannot  be  denied,  and  they  can  still  be 
seen  in  Philadelphia,  Pasadena,  Cal.,  and  elsewhere. 

On  the  fourth  day,  or  Wednesday,  there  was  a  regular 
meeting  at  which  the  women  usually  predominated.  The 
next  in  importance  was  the  Monthly  Meeting.  At  this  there 
were  generally  visitors  from  Salem  and  abroad.  Friends 
always  entertained ;  guests  were  never  neglected,  and  one  of 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


my  most  cheerful  and  youthful  recollections  is  the  dining 
room  of  my  paternal  and  maternal  grandparents,  with  ten 
or  twenty  'Triends"  attending  the  Monthly  or  Quarterly 
Meeting  dinners.  2\mong  the  guests,  I  recall  Eli  and  Sybil 
Jones,  Joseph  John  Gurney  of  England,  who  became  so  in- 
terested that  he  left  my  grandfather's  home  without  his  hat, 
and  had  to  be  called  back,  and  many  more. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  Friends  that  their  sermons  were 
never  recorded.  They  were  spontaneous  and  often  power- 
ful, and  beautiful  in  language  and  meaning.  Lindley  Hoag 
of  New  Hampshire  was  often  heard,  and  the  rolling,  sonor- 
ous character  of  his  style  can  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
favorite  text,  remembered  by  Miss  Hacker:  "Hoag  was  a 
large,  impressive  man,  and  when  those  words  rolled  out,  his 
fine  face  lighted  up,  they  had  their  effect, — 'And  when  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  years  shall  have  passed  away^ 
eternity,  a  boundless,  endless  eternity,  must  he  spent  with 
the  saints  in  light,  or  with  the  devils  damned.'  "  Samuel 
-Boyce,  Benjamin  Jones  and  Moses  Beede  were  famous  L}Tin 
ministers,  the  latter  being  very  poetic  and  eloquent.  In  a 
preface  to  one  of  his  poems,  "The  Meeting,"  Whittier  refers 
to  two  noted  New  England  Friends,  Avis  Keene,  "whose 
very  presence  was  a  benediction,''  and  Sybil  Jones.  Other 
gifted  ministers  and  Friends  of  Lynn  were  Mary  New- 
hall,  Mary  E.  Breed,  Miriam  Breed  Johnson  and  Eliza 
Boyce. 

During  the  business  meetings  the  sliding  doors  were  closed, 
and  the  men  and  women  held  their  meetings  apart.  The 
business  of  the  Society  was  carried  on  here,  a  clerk  presiding, 
who  announced  all  questions,  and  asked  for  what  was  equiv- 
alent elsewhere  to  a  debate.     Members  would  either  speak 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


in  it,  or  merely  say  "I  agree,"  or  "I  unite,"  or  "that  Friend 
speaks  my  mind."  The  clerk  was  empowered  not  only  with 
the  authority  of  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  but  he  antici- 
pated the  sense  of  the  meeting,  and  decided  in  favor  of  what 
he  thought  the  weight  of  sentiment,  and  this  was,  as  a  rule, 
accepted.  If  not,  it  was  generally  referred  to  the  Quarterly, 
and  then  if  they  could  not  agree,  to  the  Yearly  Meeting,  the 
supreme  authority.  At  the  business  meeting  the  arrange- 
ment for  the  care  of  the  poor  was  made,  and  it  can  be  said 
that  there  were  no  poor,  as  such  members  merely  entered 
families,  their  board  being  paid  by  the  meeting  or  given  by 
some  kind  friend,  the  poor  never  being  known.  In  a  like 
manner  poor  Quaker  children  were  educated  at  Friends 
Schools  at  the  expense  of  the  meeting.  The  Clerk  would 
now  read  what  were  known  as  "Queries."  The  following  is 
a  set  which  was  copied  from  the  original  in  the  Library  of  the 
Friends  School  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  These  were 
often  read  in  the  Lynn  Meeting,  and  appear  in  the  Book  of 
Discipline  of  the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting,  early  in 
1785.  They  differ  but  little  from  queries  read  in  Lynn  be- 
tween i860,  1890;  that  is,  the  sense  of  the  query  was  the 
same,  as  it  was  intended  to  cover  every  possible  question 
necessary  to  keep  the  members  in  spiritual  alignment : 

1. 

"Are  all  meetings  for  Religious  Worship  and  Discipline  duly  at- 
tended, the  hour  observed,  and  are  Friends  Preserved  from  Sleeping 
and  taking  Snuff  therein  or  from  Interrupting  the  Solemnity  of  the 
Ocation  by  frequent  going  out  of  meetings  or  other  indencent  beha- 
viour 

2. 

"Is  love  and  Unity  maintained  Amongst  you  as  becomes  the  fol- 
lowers of  Christ,  are  tale  bearing,  backbiting  and  Spreading  evil  re- 
ports discouraged,  and  where  any  differences  arise  are  endeavors  used 
Speedily  to  end  them? 


582 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


3. 

"Are  Friends  carfull  to  bring  up  those  under  their  direction  In 
plainness  of  Speech,  behaviour,  and  apparel,  and  frequent  Readings  the 
holy  Scriptures,  to  Restrain  them  from  reading  Pernicious  books  and 
the  corrupt  conversation  of  the  world. 

4. 

"Are  friends  carfull  to  avoid  the  Excessive  Spiritous  lickquers,  the 
unnecessary  frequenting  of  taverns  and  places  of  diversion,  and  keep 
in  true  moderation  and  temperance,  on  account  of  births,  marriages, 
burials  and  all  other  ocations? 

5. 

"Are  poor  Friends  necessities  duly  inspected,  they  relieved  or  As- 
sisted in  such  business  as  they  are  capable  of,  do  their  children  freely- 
partake  of  learning  to  fit  them  for  business,  and  are  they  and  other 
friends  children  placed  among  friends,  and  are  friends  carfull  to  visit 
theme  in  afifliction? 

6. 

"Do  no  young  or  single  persons  make  or  admit  proposals  of  Mar- 
riage with  Each  other  without  consent  of  parents  or  guardians,  nor 
keep  company  with  those  of  other  Societies  on  that  account,  And  if 
parents  give  their  consent  to  or  connive  all  their  Children  keeping 
company  or  marrying  with  those  of  other  Societies  are  they  delt  with 
according  to  our  discipline  or  are  there  any  professing  with  us  who 
have  been  present  at  marriages  consumated  contrary  to  the  rules  of 
our  discipline? 

7. 

"Do  no  widows  admit  proposals  of  marage  too  early  after  the 
death  of  their  former  husband,  or  from  widowers  soon  after  the  death 
of  a  former  wife  then  is  consistent  with  decency? 

8. 

"Do  you  maintain  a  faithful  testimony  against  taking  of  oaths, 
against  payment  of  priests  wages  or  those  called  church  rates  and 
against  defrauding  the  King  of  his  dues  by  avoiding  to  purchase  or 
sell  goods  unlawfully  imported  or  prise  goods  and  against  being  con- 
cerned ini  lotteries  of  any  kind? 

9. 

"Are  friends  carfull  to  make  their  wills  and  Settle  their  outward 
estates  whilst  in  health  and  take  friends  advice  therein  when  necessary 
and  are  they  clear  of  purchasing  Negroes  and  do  they  use  those  well 
which  they  are  possessed  of  Indeavouring  to  instruct  them  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  christian  Religion. 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE  583 


10. 

"Are  friends  carfull  to  live  within  the  Bounds  of'  their  Surcom- 
stance  and  to  avoid  Lanching  into  trade  and  bisnuss  Beyond  their 
abilities  to  manige  are  they  punctual  to  there  promoses  Just  In  the 
payment  of  their  debts  and  are  such  as  are  faulty  in  those  respects 
timely  Laboured  with  and  sutubelly  admonished. 

11. 

"Are  there  belonging  to  this  meeting  without  certificates  or  are 
there  come  from  other  places  appearing  as  friends  who  have  not  pro- 
duced certificates? 

12. 

"Do  you  take  due  care  regularly  to  deal  with  all  offenders  in  the 
Spirit  of  meekness  and  wisdom  without  partiality  or  unnecessary  delay 
in  order  where  any  continue  Obstinate  Judgment  according  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  may  be  placed  upon  them  in  the  authority  of  the 
truth?" 

When  the  Clerk  read  these  queries,  it  was  the  duty  of 
members  to  report  flagrant  departures,  whereupon  a  com- 
mittee would  be  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  delinquent,  and 
call  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Meeting  had  taken 
cognizance  of  his  backsliding.  Then  if  he  paid  no  attention 
to  frequent  and  helpful  pleadings  and  arguments,  and  the 
charge  was  of  sufficient  importance,  he  was  dis-owned  or 
dropped  from  the  Society  of  Friends,  but  dropped  with  deep 
regret. 

There  was  also  another  curb.  Ministers,  male  and 
female,  were  continually  visiting  families,  giving  "religious 
opportunities."  They  were  liable  to  drop  in  at  any  time, 
whereupon  the  houshold  would  repair  to  the  sitting  or  draw- 
ing room  and  hold  a  meeting  with  them.  The  visiting  min- 
isters would  make  kindly  inquiries  of  the  family,  and  in  this 
way  the  members  were  in  touch  with  old  and  young;  and 
by  a  simple  yet  wonderful  system  kept  their  people  good  by 
watchful,  prayerful  care.  The  Friends  were  remarkable  for 
traveling.    If  a  minister  had  a  desire  to  travel  and  visit 


584  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


other  Meetings  in  Europe  or  America,  this  was  known  as  a 
"religious  concern,"  and  it  was  laid  before  the  proper  busi- 
ness meeting,  and  if  the  latter  concurred,  the  Friend  had 
liberty  to  visit  any  meeting  at  home  or  abroad;  and  was 
given  a  certificate  to  that  end  signed  by  the  Clerk  of  the 
Meeting,  man  or  woman.  Few  ministers  could  defray  the 
expense  of  such  a  tour,  and  that  "Friends  may  not  be  im- 
peded or  improperly  burdened  for  want  of  requisite  means 
to  defray  the  expense  of  such  a  journey,  funds  of  the  Meet- 
ing are  supplied." 

Such  ministers  were  continually  going  about,  always 
entertained  and  always  welcome  guests.  Such  Friends  as 
Eli  and  Sybil  Jones,  Elizabeth  Comstock,  Caroline  Talbot 
and  others  made  long  journeys  all  over  the  country  and 
abroad.  The  latter,  and  Elizabeth  Comstock,  I  recall,  not 
only  preached  at  the  local  Meeting  when  visiting  my  grand 
parents,  but  visited  all  the  jails,  prisons,  and  public  institu- 
tions, giving  Bible  lessons  and  holding  various  services. 
Then  came  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  which  drew  a  larger 
assembly,  and  as  this  was  often  held  at  Weare,  New  Hamp- 
shire, many  Lynn  Friends  would  drive  in  their  private  car- 
riages over  the  road  to  this  delightful  country  (if  in  sum- 
mer), and  all  were  welcome. 

The  guests  were  divided  up  on  the  fine  old  farms  of  the 
Weare  Friends,  where  I  recall  a  long  country  road  of  splen- 
did farms  on  the  hilltop,  farms  of  hundreds  of  acres,  all 
occupied  by  cousins,  or  by  Friends  more  or  less  related. 
Three  or  four  days  would  be  spent  at  such  a  meeting.  Miss 
Sarah  Hacker  gives  an  eloquent  picture  of  the  Quarterly 
Meeting  procession  to  Weare  and  Newport,  which  as  chil- 
dren we  attended:    "The  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  of 


r 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


585 


Friends  held  in  Newport  in  June,  to  be  exact,  in  Quaker 
phraseology,  the  7th  day  after  the  2d  6th  day  in  the  6th 
month,  was  the  meeting  place  of  Friends,  not  only  of  New 
England,  but  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  the  New  York, 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  meetings  being  largely  repre- 
sented. The  old  Truro  and  Fillmore  Hotels,  and  the  Kay 
Street  House  received  them,  and  later  the  Ocean  House  and 
Atlantic  House,  nearly  opposite  on  the  avenue,  opened  the 
season  with  the  coming  of  the  Friends  in  June,  the  usual 
custom  of  being  entertained  by  Friends  at  their  homes  being 
impracticable  on  account  of  the  vast  number  that  went  to 
the  meeting.  These  were  great  days  for  the  Friends,  for 
while  the  older  ones  were  attending  meetings,  and  uphold- 
ing the  dignity  of  that  most  solid  and  substantial  body, 
the  younger  members  were  taking  horseback  rides  along  the 
shore  and  having  'picnics'  to  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  New- 
port; and  many  of  our  fathers  and  mothers  met  there  for  the 
first  time. 

"The  usual  way  of  going  to  Newport  in  those  days  was  by 
chaise  or  carriage,  Friends  coming  from  way  down  in  Maine 
in  this  way.  The  little  oval-top  hair  trunks  were  suspended 
from  the  cross-bar  under  the  chaise,  but  for  the  carriage  a 
portable  rack  was  made,  to  be  strapped  to  the  back,  on  which 
the  trunk  was  placed. 

"The  Quarterly  Meetings  held  in  Weare,  New  Hampshire, . 
in  October,  perhaps  gave  more  general  pleasure  to  our  Lynn 
Friends,  for  then  they  all  started  together,  and  the  proces- 
sion of  chaises  and  carriages,  with  their  little  trunks,  must 
have  been  a  sight  worth  seeing.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the 
pocket  camera  was  unknown  in  those  days,  else  we  might 
have  some  most  interesting  snap  shots.    It  was  a  Monday 


586  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


morning,  in  the  clear,  crisp  air  of  that  beautiful  season  of 
the  year,  when  the  hillsides  were  aflame  with  the  gorgeous 
coloring  of  our  New  England  autumn  that  our 
party  started,  driving  as  far  as  Lowell,  where  they 
stopped  for  dinner.  Word  was  always  sent  in  ad- 
vance to  the  different  hotels  on  the  way,  so  that 
every  convenience  and  comfort  that  the  place  af- 
forded was  waiting  for  them.  After  dinner  the  party 
drove  to  Nashua,  for  supper  and  to  spend  the  night.  The 
next  day,  Tuesday,  they  had  dinner  at  Fletcher  Tavern,  and 
then  on  to  Weare  that  afternoon,  where  they  'put  up'  at  the 
different  Friends'  houses,  spending  the  night  with  one,  tak- 
ing dinner  with  another,  supper  with  another,  and  the  fried 
chickens,  pumpkin  pies  and  rye  drop  cakes,  which  were  some 
of  the  delicacies  served,  were  always  looked  forward  to,  and 
pleasantly  remembered  by  those  fortunate  enough  to  taste 
them." 

She  thus  describes  the  hospitable  home  of  Nathan  Breed, 
her  grandfather,  one  of  the  wealthiest  Quakers  of  Lynn, 
whose  fine  character  and  Washingtonian  face  is  still  remem- 
bered: "Preparations  for  this  day  had  been  going  on  for 
some  time.  You,  as  guests  did  not  know  it,  but  the  family 
did,  for  bright  and  early  Monday  morning  they  were  turned 
out  of  their  rooms,  to  take  up  their  abode  in  the  attic  for  a 
week,  and  the  seventeen  sleeping  rooms  that  the  house  con- 
tained, with  the  exception  of  those  occupied  by  the  servants, 
were  put  in  order  for  the  guests.  This  may  seem  rather  hard 
on  the  family,  but  if  you  had  seen  the  five  cosy  rooms  that 
that  big  attic  was  turned  into,  you  would  beg,  as  did  some 
of  the  guests,  to  be  'allowed  to  be  be  considered  one  of  the 
family  I' 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE  587 


"In  the  yard  a  like  transformation  took  place,  as  this 
Friend  owned  wood  land,  farm  land,  and  salt  marsh,  which 
required  all  kinds  of  carts  and  implements  to  work.  There 
were  sheds  scattered  about  for  their  accommodation.  These 
were  all  emptied  of  their  contents,  and  they,  with  the  barn 
and  hitching  posts,  made  ready  for  use.  The  genius  who 
presided  over  the  household  affairs  for  about  forty  years, 
was  one  of  that  fine  type  of  New  Hampshire  women,  strong 
mentally  and  physically,  brusque  in  manner,  but  with  the 
kindest  heart  in  the  world,  equal  to  any  emergency,  and, 
with  a  previous  training  in  a  hotel,  was  able  to  assume  all 
the  care  of  the  house,  leaving  the  host  and  hostess  free  to 
entertain  their  guests. 

"With  well-trained  servants  under  her  and  a  number  of 
helpers  from  outside,  who  always  came  at  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing time,  the  large  number  of  guests  were  easily  taken  care 
of.  To  cook  for  all  the  guests  two  old-fashioned  brick 
ovens,  about  four  feet  deep,  were  employed,  which  required 
a  "slide'  or  'oven  shovel'  to  take  the  things  out,  a  range  set 
in  the  side  of  the  chimney,  a  modern  cook  stove  and  a  set 
boiler,  which  would  hold  ten  pairs  of  chickens  at  a  time  I 
After  breakfast,  while  still  at  the  table,  the  Bible  was 
brought  out,  and  the  host  read  a  chapter,  as  was  the  daily 
'custom  of  Friends,  after  which  a  prayer  was  offered  or  re- 
marks made. 

"After  the  breakfast,  the  table  was  set  for  luncheon  for 
the  Friends  who  came  from  Salem,  Dan  vers  and  the  sur- 
rounding towns.  Then  began  the  preparation  for  the  event 
of  the  day,  the  Quarterly  Meeting  dinner!  and  the  long 
table,  which  seated  twenty-four  comfortably,  was  made  to 
look  its  best.    Dinner  in  those  days  was  served  in  two 


588  QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


courses,  the  meat  course  and  dessert,  but  what  was  wanting 
in  those  two  courses  was  out  of  the  reach  of  the  Lynn  mar- 
kets. At  each  end  of  the  table  was  a  large  piece  of  roast 
beef,  and  in  the  centre,  a  white  halibut,  covered  with  egg 
sauce,  as  pleasant  to  the  eye  as  to  the  taste,  while  scat- 
tered along  the  table  were  chickens,  lamb,  ham,  etc.,  and 
every  vegetable  one  can  think  of.  Opposite  each  piece 
was  seated  a  good  carver,  and  with  the  servants,  assisted 
by  the  granddaughters  of  the  house,  the  guests  were  easily 
and  quickly  served." 

Next  to  the  Quarterly  came  the  Yearly  Meeting,  held  in 
the  author's  time  annually  in  Newport,  the  Friends  taking 
possession  of  one  of  the  big  hotels  and  holding  a  meeting  of 
protracted  length. 

The  Lynn  Meeting  has  always  been  an  interesting  one. 
Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland  doubtless  spoke 
here  and  at  Salem,  Hampton  and  other  localities  now  known 
by  other  names  in  the  eventful  years  of  1657.  Sewell,  the 
historian,  refers  to  their  visit  at  Salem.  Unfortunately, 
records  of  the  first  meetings  were  not  taken,  and  the  first 
obtained  at  Salem  are  dated  1677,  twenty  years  after  the 
visit  of  Holder  and  Copeland.  Rocords  undoubtedly  there 
were,  but  they  were  lost  or  mislaid.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  years  is  a  short  time  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
but  an  eternity  in  the  history  of  man  and  his  works. 

The  Salem  Monthly  Meeting  was  important,  being  made 
up  of  members  from  Lynn,  Salem,  Peabody,  Saugus, 
Swampscot  and  formerly  Boston.  The  first  record  of  a 
Lynn  Meeting,  according  to  George  Herbert,  Clerk  of  the 
Meeting  and  historian  of  the  Society,  is  as  follows:  ''At 
our  meeting  of  Friends  held  at  the  home  of  Thomas  Maul 


r 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE  589 


in  Salem  28th  day  of  ye  12th  month,  16".  After  naming 
the  Friends  present  (ten  in  number),  it  reads  thus:  "Thomas 
Maul  proposed  to  this  meeting  that  it  might  be  very  con- 
venient to  have  a  meeting  once  a  month,  settled  in  Lynn  for 
the  ease  of  those  Friends  that  were  inhabettars  there."  This 
was  granted  and  a  Monthly  Meeting  was  appointed  at  the 
home  of  Samuel  Collins,  which  stood  on  Essex  Street  where 
the  Ingalls  School  stood.  This  meeting  has  continued  ever 
since  and  on  the  same  day — the  second  fifth  day  of  every 
month,  or  Thursday,  though  at  times  alternating  with 
Salem  and  Boston. 

In  1722  Richard  Estes  (d'Estes),  a  kinsman  of  the  au- 
thor's great  great  grandmother,  Hannah  Estes,  and  brother 
of  Mathew  Estes,  gave  the  ground  on  Broad  Street  for  a 
burial  ground  and  site  for  a  meeting,  "in  consideration  of 
the  love  and  good  will  he  bore  to  the  people  of  God  called 
Quakers  in  Linn,  to  bury  their  dead  in  and  erect  a  meeting- 
house for  the  worship  of  God." 

In  looking  up  the  records  of  Friends  the  work  of  the 
genealogist  is  found  difficult  on  account  of  the  lack  of  grave- 
stones. In  the  early  days  this  was  considered  a  vanity,  and 
in  1812  a  minute  issued  by  the  Yearly  Meeting  "ordered 
•that  no  Toune  of  grave  stone  be  sett  up  or  put  over  the 
graves  of  Friends  burial  grounds  or  rails."  Not  until  about 
1852  were  gravestones  used,  and  then  not  over  fifteen  inches 
in  height.  This  was  going  to  one  extreme.  Another  is  seen 
in  the  mortuary  display,  emphasizing  grief,  in  nearly  all 
countries. 

In  Lynn  tjie  "New  Light"  separation  in  1822-3  occa- 
sioned a  division  even  in  the  burial  ground.  One  of  the  lead- 
ers was  Mary  Newhall.    It  was  evidently  a  Unitarian  move- 


590 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


ment,  and  its  leaders  became  Unitarians  or  joined  the  Hicks- 
ite  movement  in  1827.  Thirty-five  Friends  were  disowned 
in  Lynn  for  joining  the  New  Light  movement. 

William  O.  Newhall,  Nathan  and  Mary  Breed,  Mica- 
jah  Collins,  Avis  Keene,  Samuel  Boyce,  Abagail  C.  Beede, 
Micajah  M.  Binford,  William  P.  Pinkham,  Joseph  G. 
Smith,  Benjamin  H.  Jones,  Eliza  Boyce,  Moses  Beede,  John 
C.  and  Hannah  Gove,  Aaron  and  Rachael  Bassett  Holder, 
John  H.  Grossman,  Abby  Beede,  Patience  and  Green  Paige, 
Lydia  Rich,  Hannah  Hawks  are  a  few  names  which  occur 
to  me  and  faces  I  recall  in  the  Lynn  meeting.  I  have  the  mar- 
riage certificates  of  my  great  grandfather,  Richard  Holder, 
who  married  Mary  Breed,  and  some  of  the  signers  to  it  at 
Lynn  in  1784  were  Henry  Oliver,  Samuel  Collins,  Eliza- 
beth Collins,  Samuel  Newhall,  Ebenezer  Breed,  Micajah 
Collins,  Estes  Newhall,  Daniel  Newhall,  Jedediah  Puring- 
ton,  Joseph  Bassett,  John  Pope,  Patience  Hawks,  Richard 
Pratt,  Jr.,  Moses  Alley,  Nathan  Breed  3rd,  Isaac  Bassett, 
Rebecca  Alley,  Sarah  Breed,  Rebeka  Phillips,  Lydia  New- 
hall, Hexia  Breed,  Content  Alley,  Elizabeth  Bassett,  James 
Breed,  Jr.,  Johnathan  Phillips,  Jr.,  Richard  Holder,  Mary 
(Breed)  Holder,  Isaiah  Breed,  Hannah  Breed,  Lois  Alley, 
Theodate  (Holder)  Pope  (daughter  of  Daniel  Holder,  wife 
of  Folger  Pope),  Nehemiah  Johnson,  Kergia  Johnson, 
Pharoah  Newhall,  Benjamin  Alley,  Patience  Silsbe,  John 
Pratt  and  Nathan  Breed. 

These  were  among  the  leading  Friends  of  Lynn  in  1784, 
and  many  were  related.  The  names  of  the  signers  on  the 
certificate  (which  I  also  have)  of  my  great  great  grand- 
father, Isaac  Breed,  who  married  Hannah  Estes  (d' Estes), 
in  Lynn  in  1748,  twenty-eight  years  before  the  Revolution, 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


591 


are  as  follows.  Some  were  old  people,  and  they  doubtless 
had  listened  to  the  preaching  of  Christopher  Holder,  John 
Copeland,  Fox,  Penn  and  other  early  Friends:  John  Tyler, 
James  Purington,  Joseph  Bassett,  Humphrey  Devereau, 
Ezekiel  Allen,  Ebenezer  Pope,  Nathan  Breed,  Ebeneezer 
Breed,  Samuel  Breed,  John  Bassett,  Jr.,  Samuel  Osborn, 
William  Bassett,  Zaccheus  Collins,  Isasah  Breed,  Hannah 
Breed,  Hannah  Estes,  Jabez  Breed  (my  fifth  great  grand- 
father), Nathan  Breed,  Jr.,  Samuel  Breed,  Amos  Breed, 
William  Estes,  Mary  Breed,  Anna  Breed  and  Mary  Estes. 

These  were  among  the  prominent  Friends  of  Lynn  during 
the  reign  of  George  II.,  or  the  time  of  the  great  Wesleyan 
Revival  and  rise  of  Methodism,  1727  to  1760,  when  King 
George  III.  succeeded  to  the  throne.  These  wedding  certifi- 
cates, as  all  others  of  the  Friends,  due  to  the  large  number 
of  signatures,  are  of  great  historical  value  as  showing  not 
only  signatures  of  noted  men  or  women  of  the  era,  but 
those  who  lived  there  at  that  time.  These  particular  certifi- 
cates, bearing  the  names  of  many  important  heads  of  colo- 
nial familis,  have  been  given  by  me  to  the  Holder  Memorial 
of  Clinton,  Massachusetts,  presented  to  the  Clinton,  Massa- 
chusetts, Historical  Society  by  Francis  T.  Holder,  of 
.Yonkers,  New  York. 

The  Friends  of  Boston  "set  up"  a  meeting  in  1803,  which 
was  objected  to  by  the  Friends  Meeting  of  Lynn.  In  the 
Lynn  records  of  1803,  First  Month,  appears  the  following: 
"The  subject  relating  to  Friends  in  Boston  being  again  be- 
fore this  Meeting,  and  as  it  appears  by  information  given 
this  meeting  that  Friends  there  are  in  the  practice  of  hold- 
ing and  have  set  up  and  do  hold  a  Meeting,  we  do  therefore 
appoint  Richard  Holder  (the  author's  great  grandfather)  to 


592 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


labor  with  these  Friends  who  do  thus  contrary  to  the  advice 
of  the  Monthly  Meeting,  set  up  and  hold  said  meetings, 
etc." 

Many  meeting-houses  would  have  been  built  in  the  early 
days,  but  they  would,  undoubtedly,  have  been  demolished 
by  the  authorities;  hence  Friends  met  in  private  houses  in 
many  places  previous  to  the  "extinction  of  the  Colonial 
charter  in  1691-2  and  the  substitution  of  the  provincial 
charter  which  carried  with  it  Sir.  William  Phipps  of  Maine 
as  governor. 

While  Boston  had  no  meeting-house  until  1803,  when 
Edward  Wanton,  a  king's  officer,  was  converted  to  Quaker- 
ism, at  the  hanging  of  Mary  Dyer,  and  put  away  his  sword 
in  so  dramatic  a  manner,  he  invited  Friends  to  meet  at  his 
House  on  Brattle  Street,  near  the  Quincy  House  in 
Boston.  He  later  moved  to  Scituate  and  became  the 
"ancestor  of  many  Quaker  governors"  mentioned  else- 
where, 1732-1775.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century 
the  Boston  Friends  demonstrated  satisfactorily  to  the 
Yearly  Meeting  that  they  needed  a  meeting,  and 
a  small  brick  building  was  the  result.  This  was 
followed  by  one  in  Congress  Street.  In  these  old  build- 
ings there  were  no  stoves.  The  old  South  Church,  accord- 
ing to  Augustin  Jones,  was  not  heated  until  1783,  when 
peace  came  with  the  mother  country,  and  even  then  there 
was  a  poetic  protest : 

"Extinct  the  sacred  fire  of  love 
Our  zeal  grown  cold  and  ded 
In  house  of  God  we  fix  a  stove 
To  warm  us  in  their  stead." 


QUAKER  HOME  LIFE 


When  Nicholas  Upsall,  the  proprietor  of  the  ''Red  Lion 
Inn"  of  Boston,  famous  for  his  defence  of  Ann  Austin 
and  Mary  Fisher,  died,  he  left  his  estate  to  the  Friends,  and 
the  various  articles  and  the  proceeds  of  same  went  to  the 
meeting-house  in  Brattle  Street,  and  some,  according  to 
Augustin  Jones,  have  been  handed  down  through  all  the 
Boston  Meetings,  Congress  Street,  Milton  Place,  and  the 
present  meeting-house  at  Roxbury.  The  first  or  Brattle 
Street  meeting-house  was  built  from  contributions  sent  from 
all  over  the  colonies  and  even  from  far  Barbados.  The 
second  meeting-house  in  Boston  stood  on  a  lot  55x160  feet, 
on  Leverett's  Lane,  or  Quaker  Lane  or  Congress  Street.  It 
was  of  brick  with  a  burying-ground  behind  it.  This  meet- 
ing-house was  destroyed  in  the  fire  of  1760.  One  of  its 
trustees  was  Samuel  Collins  of  Lynn. 

The  Revolution  was  disastrous  to  the  Quakers  in 
Boston.  Friends  while  they  had  been  aided  by  the 
Penn  colony  migrated  West  and  South.  At  last  but 
one  old  Friend,  Ebenezer  Pope,  remained,  who  sat, 
silent  and  alone,  in  the  weekly  and  first-day  meet- 
ings. Finally  there  was  no  one  and  the  Boston 
meetings  were  given  up  until  1803,  when  a  few  Friends 
attempted  to  renew  the  ancient  glories  of  Quakerdom  and 
were  visited  by  the  wrath  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  the  per- 
son of  Richard  Holder,  who  explained  to  the  Boston  Friends 
that  there  was  strength  in  numbers  and  advised  them  to  go 
to  Lynn  to  attend  meeting. 

Sandwich,  where  Holder  and  Copeland  preached  the  first 

sermons  of  Friends  in  America,  has  a  Monthly  Meeting, 

which  dates  back  from  1658.    This,  it  is  believed,  is  the 

oldest  in  America.    Duxbury  (to  quote  Augustin  Jones,  a 

distinguished  authority  on  Friends)  had  one  in  1660. 
38 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS. 

The  Friends  made  a  careful  record  of  the  spoliations  or 
suffering,  "the  spoiling  of  their  goods  for  the  answer  of  a 
good  conscience  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ."  Thus 
Thomas  Harris,  in  1696,  for  refusing  to  pay  rate  to  the 
priest,  Jeremiah  Shepard,  was  imprisoned  a  month. 
William  Bassett's  cow  was  seized  in  1697  because  the 
Quaker  would  not  drill  as  a  soldier.  Then  follows  a  long 
list  of  articles  seized  by  the  "priest,"  ranging  from  silver 
plates  to  a  pair  of  bellows.  The  Priest  was  the  Puritan 
rector  of  the  First  church,  which  stood  on  the  Common, 
known  as  the  "Old  Tunnel  Mee ting-House,"  and  in  later 
years  the  First  Congregational  church,  on  Vine  and  North 
Common  Street. 

Some  of  the  author's  Quaker  kinsmen  in  Lynn  were  slave 
owners.  Joseph  Gaskill  released  his  slaves  in  1775,  and 
in  1776  John  Bassett  did  the  same.  The  movement  to  re- 
lease slaves  began  in  Lynn  in  1772,  though  Fox,  Holder, 
Copeland,  Edmundson  and  others  preached  against  it  a 
century  previous.  Many  Lynn  men  and  women  were  anti- 
slavery  workers  down  to  i860.  The  first  Quaker  schools 
were  suggested  in  1715,  and  the  records  show  that  Quakers 
had  a  school  set  apart  for  their  children  in  1777.  The 
Friends  were  allowed  a  part  of  the  town  school  funds  up  to 
1821.  In  1839  there  were  459  members  of  the  Friends 
meeting  in  Lynn,  and  except  that  of  Nantucket  it  v/as  the 
largest  meeting  in  New  England.  In  1678  a  meeting-house 
was  built  on  Wolf  Hill,  opposite  the  home  of  Aaron  Holder 


r 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  595 


on  Washington  Square.  A  second  meeting-house  was  built 
in  1723  near  the  burying  ground  on  Broad  Street.  This 
was  used  for  ninety-three  years,  or  until  1816,  when  the 
present  house  was  erected  by  the  author's  kinsman,  Richard 
Estes. 

Occasionally  some  author  or  philosopher  with  the  artistic 
temperament  writes  an  article  or  sermon  on  the  idyllic  pos- 
sibilities of  the  simple  life.  The  subject  is  treated  as  some- 
thing much  to  be  desired,  a  modern  suggestion,  but  a  dream, 
only  to  be  attained  in  the  vague  and  distant  future. 

If  these  writers  of  rhapsodies  could  have  lived  in  Quaker 
homes  in  the  latter  part  of  the  19th  century,  in  any  Quaker 
centre,  as  Lynn,  New  Bedford  or  Philadelphia  to-day  they 
would  have  seen  the  simple  life  as  it  was  lived.  They  would 
have  seen  the  ideal  lives  of  the  Quakers,  though  I  do  not 
wish  to  say  that  every  Quaker  home  was  ideal  or  perfect. 
But  the  majority  of  those  I  have  known,  were  most  attrac- 
tive from  this  standpoint.  There  was  a  simplicity,  a  gentle- 
ness, a  true  refinement  that  comes  from  inborn  culture,  that 
had  set  its  stamp  on  many  of  these  people  and  their  homes. 

There  was  nothing  eccentric  or  grotesque  about  this. 
They  merely  believed  in  the  simple  life,  ,  refused 
to  change  fashions  or  indulge  in  the  vagaries  of 
fashion,  and  the  result  of  their  methods  of  living, 
was  a  type  of  character  at  once  fresh,  sweet,  gentle,  and 
characteristic  of  Quaker  homes.  They  saw  no  evil;  they 
spoke  no  evil ;  they  heard  no  evil.  Their  religious  life  was 
lived  every  hour;  they  earnestly  endeavored  to  follow  the 
maxims  and  example  of  Christ,  but  their  religion  was  not  a 
burden.  Their  lives  were  bright,  cheery  and  full  of  "sweet- 
ness and  light"  Neal  Mathew  Arnold  tells  us  of. 


596      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


It  will  be  seen  that  with  the  first  day,  fourth-day  prepar- 
ative, Monthly,  Quarterly  and  Yearly  Meetings,  the  Que- 
ries, the  constant  supervision  of  visiting  ministers,  and  every 
member  a  self-appointed  guardian,  obliged  by  custom  to  re- 
port infractions  of  the  moral  law,  that  here  was  an  extraord- 
inarily perfect  system  for  social  purity,  producing  a  people 
whose  daily  lives  were  exemplary  to  a  marked  degree,  and 
presenting  a  study  of  striking  interest  and  value.  In  a 
word,  the  Quakers,  under  the  guidance  of  George  Fox,  had 
evolved  a  marvelous  system  of  life,  having  for  its  essence  the 
elimination  of  evil  in  a  community  and  the  promotion  of 
piety. 

The  marriage  ceremony  of  Friends,  while  simple,  was  an 
ordeal  far  ahead  of  a  modern  church  wedding.  An  alliance 
between  improper  persons  was  not  likely  to  occur.  When 
parents  concurred  the  marriage  was  announced,  and  the 
couple  married  themselves,  in  the  presence  of  such  a  host  of 
witnesses  that  it  became  a  most  conspicuous  and  public 
affair.  A  month  previous  to  the  marriage  the  announcement 
of  intention  was  ''read  up  in  meeting,"  that  is,  reported 
officially  to  the  Monthly  Meeting,  whereupon  there  was  an 
amount  of  red  tape  more  or  less  demoralizing.  The  groom- 
to-be  appeared  before  the  woman's  meeting  with  a  friend 
appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  the  announcement  was  made, 
that  with  divine  permission  and  the  approbation  of  Friends 
he  proposed  to  marry.  Now  two  women  Friends  were 
appointed  by  a  "minute"  to  investigate  the  would-be  bride, 
and  if  they  found  that  her  family  had  no  objection,  and  that 
the  course  was  clear,  they  waited  on  the  men's  business 
meeting,  and  reported  favorably.  Then  two  men  Friends, 
appointed  by  the  men's  meeting,  made  inquiries  regarding 


r 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  597 


the  would-be  groom,  and  if  his  "clearness  of  others  is 
proven,"  it  was  reported  to  the  first  business  meeting,  and 
they  were  allowed  to  marry.  Two  Friends  of  each  sex 
were  appointed  to  see  that  ''good  order  was  preserved." 

The  day  was  selected,  not  a  regular  meeting  day,  and  the 
bride  and  groom  took  their  seats  facing  the  meeting  or  audi- 
ence. After  a  short  silence  they  rose;  the  groom  took  the 
bride  by  the  hand,  and  recited,  "In  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
and  this  assembly,  I  take  thee,  to  be  my  wife,  prom- 
ising with  divine  assistance  to  be  unto  thee  a  faithful  and 
aifectionate  husband  till  death  do  separate  us."  Then  the 
bride  promised  the  same.  Then  there  was  a  silence,  or  pos- 
sibly a  prayer  or  preaching,  and  the  meeting  broke  up,  as 
it  always  does,  by  the  leading  man  minister  reaching  over 
and  shaking  hands  with  the  nearest  woman  minister. 

Then  the  long  marriage  certificate  was  brought  out,  and 
was  signed  by  all  the  relatives  and  a  goodly  part  of  the 
congregation.  So  general  was  this  that  the  lists  of  names  on 
these  voluminous  papers  have  been  of  great  value  in  locating 
the  residents  of  certain  towns  at  certain  times. 

The  unbounded  hospitality  of  these  Friends,  and  the 
"groaning  tables"  have  become  a  proverb.  For  weeks  the 
good  housewives  had  been  preparing  for  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing, and  the  cakes,  pies  of  all  kinds,  and  array  of  food  was 
an  extraordinary  testimony  to  their  good  living.  John 
Adams  has  left  a  description  of  these  simple  feasts"  in 
Philadelphia;  the  same  was  true  of  Lynn  in  the  old  days, 
though  in  the  sixties  strict  temperance  was  the  order  of  the 
day.  Adams  says:  "It  was  a  Quaker  hostess  who  pressed 
upon  him  at  one  meal,  ducks,  ham,  chickens,  beef,  pig, 
tarts,  creams,  custards,  jellies,  fools,  trifles,  floating  island, 


598      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


beer,  porter,  punch,  and  wine,  and  at  another  Quaker  house 
he  wrote  he  drank  Madeira  at  a  great  rate  and  found  no 
inconvenience.  About  this  time  Henry  Qansey,  an  Eng- 
lish traveller,  confesses  he  was  "filled  with  awe  and  vener- 
ation when  permitted  to  breakfast  with  President  Washing- 
ton, but  the  two  small  plates  of  sliced  tongue,  dry  toast, 
bread  and  butter"  carried  a  painful  sense  of  incompleteness 
to  his  hearty  English  appetite." 

The  "peculiarities"  of  the  Friends  have  always  caught 
the  public  eye  more  than  their  religion,  which  differs  but 
little  from  that  of  any  Christian  denomination. 

The  Quaker  man's  costume,  up  to  within  a  few  years, 
strange  as  it  may  have  appeared,  was  not  so  remarkable  as 
that  of  English  bishops  or  even  clergymen  today.  The  por- 
trait of  William  Penn  might  well  pass  for  that  of  an  Epis- 
copal bishop. 

Their  avoidance  of  certain  words  and  the  use  of  others 
occasioned  remark  among  strangers.  It  is  said  that  a  young 
Friend  who  was  very  fond  of  reciting  poetry,  in  reading  the 
well  known  lines  of  Burns,  said : 

"My  love's  like  a  red,  red  rose 
That's  newly  blown  in  sixth  month." 
a  story  which  I  can  readily  believe,  as  I  have  heard  a  young 
Friend  use  the  term  "a  fourth-month  dunce,"  instead  of  an 
April  fool.  In  New  England  in  the  sixties,  the  plain  lan- 
guage was  used  by  young  and  old,  but  a  change  was  coming, 
as  only  old  Friends,  or  elderly  people  used  the  very  plain  lan- 
guage. Thus  a  minister  would  say,  "How  art  thou, 
Thomas'?"  but  if  Thomas  (a  young  man)  was  addressing 
the  minister,  he  would  say  "Good  morning,  Benjamin  Jones, 
how  does  thee  do^"    To  which  the  reply  would  be,  "Very 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  599 


well,  I  thank  thee,"  or  "Art  thou  well,  Thomas'?"  "Quite 
well,  thank  thee."  In  a  word,  the  young  people  of  New 
England  did  not  use  the  word  "thou,"  but  those  from  Phil- 
adelphia and  elders  did;  and  the  young  women  from  the 
latter  place,  as  a  rule,  dressed  in  the  plain  bonnets,  which 
were  beginning  to  disappear  in  New  England.  It  is  told 
of  a  Philadelphia  hack  driver,  who  seeing  two  Friends  leave 
the  train,  ran  up,  and  thinking  to  secure  their  patronage  if 
he  pretended  to  be  a  Friend,  cried  out,  "This  way.  Friends, 
where  is  thou's  baggage^" 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  primitive  Quaker  cos- 
tumes of  the  Joseph  John  Gurney  era  have  entirely  disap- 
peared, though  in  London,  in  1910,  I  saw  but  one  woman 
garbed  this  way  in  the  Westminster  meeting,  where  the 
Friends  are  completely  modernized.  In  this  and  other  re- 
spects, and  in  the  families  of  English  Quakers  I  observed 
the  appointments  were  those  of  persons  of  wealth  and 
fashion.  In  small  towns  and  small  meetings  the  old  cos- 
tumes can  often  be  seen.  Philadelphia  is  still  the  center  of 
Quaker  conservative  interest,  as  it  has  always  been,  and  the 
primitive  costumes  still  hold  among  some  of  the  elder 
Friends  and  some  young  ones,  also.  The  clerk  who  waited 
on  me  in  a  Friends'  bookstore  in  Philadelphia  in  1909,  wore 
'a  straight  collar  and  drab  Quaker  coat  of  the  cut  of  fifty 
years  ago.  In  the  West  the  old-fashioned  Quaker  bonnets 
can  still  be  seen,  and  in  Pasadena,  California,  there  is  a 
meeting  which  to-day,  1913,  has  an  exceedingly  primitive 
appearance,  the  men  often  keeping  on  their  hats  during  the 
meeting  and  numbers  of  elderly  women  Friends  wearing  the 
Gurneyite  or  Wilburite  bonnet.  While  the  Quaker  bonnets 
hiade  of  pasteboard  bent  into  a  scoop,  and  covered  with 


6oo      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


satin,  were  all  of  a  similar  type,  there  was  a  wide  range 
from  the  straight  shape  of  the  English  to  the  up-country 
Wilburite  and  the  Gurney  bonnet,  with  the  crown  tipped  up 
slightly  to  conform  to  the  cap  seen  in  the  famous  picture 
of  Elizabeth  Fry.  All  the  ladies  of  my  family,  the  grand- 
parents on  both  sides,  dressed  in  the  Elizabeth  Fry  fashion, 
and  the  next  generation,  wore  drawn  bonnets  as  late  as 
1866. 

In  their  shoes  and  footwear  the  Quakers  were  indulgent 
and  had  the  best.  I  have  an  overshoe  used  by  my  great  great 
grandmother.  Content  Breed,  a  Quaker  minister.  It  is  a 
"rubber"  or  "golosh"  of  a  century  ago.  The  sole  is  of 
leather,  seven  inches  long.  The  upper  portion  is  open  over 
the  toe,  the  portion  that  laps  over  being  covered  with  a  rich 
brocade  of  gold  and  green,  the  interior  being  built  up,  sug- 
gestive of  very  high  instep  and  certainly  not  Quakerish  high 
heels.  Many  such  overshoes  can  be  seen  in  the  Museum  of 
the  Salem  Institute,  and  some  in  the  Nantucket  Museum. 

At  the  Friends  School,  Providence,  in  1867-8,  the  fair 
student  members  of  the  institution  were  not  allowed  to  wear 
jewelry  or  colors,  and  musical  instruments  were  tabooed,  the 
the  only  one  I  remember  being  an  accordion,  which  a  Ger- 
man boy  concealed  in  a  tree  in  the  grove  and  played  to  us 
surreptitiously.  A  few  years  later  pianos  were  introduced, 
and  the  Quakers  who  had  been  music  starved,  and  deprived 
of  the  blue  of  the  heavens,  the  green  of  grass,  and  the  colors 
of  the  flowers,  suddenly  came  into  their  own. 

The  strange  indulgence  in  these  non-essentials  by  Friends, 
the  deprivation  of  color,  music,  art,  and  gaiety  of  any  kind 
m.ight,  in  the  estimation  of  psychologists,  have  resulted  in  a 
hardening  or  narrowing  of  the  character;  but  this  was  not 


r 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


601 


the  case.  If  the  Quaker  had  any  characteristic  more  pro- 
nounced than  another,  it  w,as  a  remarkable  sweetness  and 
gentleness,  combined  with  spirituality  and  high  cultivation. 
The  training  of  a  young  Quaker  would  to-day  seem  to  have 
a  tendency  to  check  the  development  of  the  imag- 
inative or  artistic  qualities;  but  if  the  child's  rec- 
ords could  be  examined  it  would  be  found  that 
if  actual  Quakers  did  not  make  great  artists,  musi- 
cians, scientists,  in  numbers  proportionate  to  their  nu- 
merical strength,  their  immediate  offspring  did,  and 
in  goodly  proportion  to  their  numbers.  I  believe  it  will  be 
shown  that  the  Quakers  have  produced  their  share  of  dis- 
tinguished figures  in  the  uplift  of  the  world.  Their  mental 
capacity  has  not  been  atrophied  in  the  extraordinary  experi- 
ment of  a  return  to  the  "simple  life"  as  expressed  by  the  life 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  have  been  a  number  of  separations  among  the 
Friends,  and  they  were  generally  of  a  destructive  nature : — 
the  Keith,  Hicksite,  Wilburite,  Gurney,  Otis,  King  move- 
ments resulted  in  separations.  Another  separation  occurred 
during  the  anti-slavery  agitation  in  Indiana  in  1842.  The 
conservative  meeting  declaring  that  Jacob  Grave,  William 
Locke  and  Charles  Osborn,  leaders  in  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment, were  objectionable.  Sides  were  taken,  and  for  four- 
teen years  there  was  a  separation,  or  until  1856.  Another 
sparation  came  in  Plainfield,  Indiana,  in  1877,  over  the  in- 
troduction of  revivals  and  night  meetings. 

There  was  also  a  separation  in  Iowa  over  the  question  of 
the  desirability  of  a  "mourner's  bench," — a  very  successful 
adjunct  in  Western  and  Southern  Methodist  churches. 
Opinions  differed;  sides  were  taken,  and  in  1877  there  was 


6o2      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


a  separation.  All  these  differences  appear  to  have  been 
relics  of  the  many  non-essentials  which  agitated  the  sect  in 
the  early  days. 

In  i860  the  mere  mention  of  a  revival  or  night  meeting 
would  have  thrown  the  dignified  New  England  Friends  into 
a  panic,  and  one  can  hardly  forecast  the  result.  But  a 
"mourner's  bench"  was  a  specter  that  could  only  be  thought 
of  as  an  emanation  of  contumelious  fiction. 

In  the  early  days  there  was  a  very  evident  difference  be- 
tween the  Eastern  and  Western  Friends.  The  Eastern  Friend 
was  often  a  man  of  elegant  appearance,  and  the  ministers 
who  sat  on  the  high  seat  in  Lynn,  New  Bedford,  Providence, 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  were  well  attired  in  broadcloth 
of  the  best.  Into  such  an  atmosphere  of  culture,  refinement 
and  elegance  (I  dislike  to  use  the  word  elegance,  but  there 
is  no  other  to  express  it)  the  plain  Western  farmer  Quaker 
minister  often  came,  with  breezy.  Western  ways,  and  a  man- 
ner suggestive  of  the  mourner's  bench  and  revival  methods. 
Such  men  were  always  received  with  perfect  courtesy,  but 
their  manners  and  methods  were  not  entirely  acceptable. 
This  difference  of  manner  was  noticed  by  the  English 
Friends,  who  were  more  worldly,  and  their  men  often 
marked  for  their  inate  culture  and  refinement. 

Despite  the  supposed  solemnity  of  meetings,  Friends  have 
a  strong  sense  of  humor.  In  the  Lynn  meeting  a  certain 
Friend  arose  and  remarked,  "I  am  satisfied,"  and  sat  down. 
As  a  child,  I  often  heard  these  brief  soliloquies.  Rarely 
over  three  or  four  words  were  used,  and  I  regret  to  say  that 
it  appealed  to  the  young  Friends,  who  were  not  very  differ- 
ent from  the  average  youth.  Once  a  visiting  Friend  sat  in 
silence  for  an  hour,  then  rose,  saying,  "Enough  has  been 
said,"  shook  hands  and  dismissed  the  meeting. 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  603' 

Perhaps  the  strangest  text  is  mentioned  by  Allen  Jay  in 
his  biography.  He  says,  "This  dear  Friend  rose  with  great 
solemnity  and  broke  the  silence  by  saying,  Tork  is  worth 
seven  dollars  per  hundred,'  and  preached  a  long  and  search- 
ing sermon,"  which,  doubtless,  had  its  application,  as  pork 
was  so  low  in  the  market  that  the  farmers  were  in  despair. 

For  many  years  there  was  a  large  contingent  of  Friends 
at  Weare,  New  Hampshire,  many  being  kinsmen  of  the 
author.  The  first  settlers  were  Johnathan  Dow  and  Elijah 
Purington,  1766.  They  had  a  commodious  meeting-house 
about  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  later  two.  At  one  of 
these  meetings,  after  a  long  silence,  a  young,  delicate  and 
beautiful  woman  rose,  and  in  a  clear  and  decided  tone  said, 
"Let  every  one  mind  his  own  proper  business,"  then  sat 
down.  This  sermon  is  still  remembered  in  Weare,  and 
doubtless  carried  its  message  much  further  than  if  it  had 
been  but  the  text  to  a  long  and  eloquent  discourse.  On 
another  occasion  an  itinerant  speaker  began  to  preach,  and 
as  an  hour  and  a  half  passed,  and  he  evidently  could  not 
stop,  a  kinsman  of  the  author.  Friend  Gove,  a  descendant  of 
Edward  Gove,  who  was  in  the  Tower  of  London  with 
William  Penn,  noted  for  his  wit,  rose  and  said  with  great 
gravity,  "Blessed  are  the  feet  of  a  good  man  who  doth  good 
tidings  bring,  but  when  he  hath  done  his  errand  he  ought  to 
know  enough  to  sit  down."   The  stranger  sat  down. 

In  the  same  meeting  a  simple-minded  Friend  was  much 
addicted  to  dry  and  pointless  sermons,  though  he  had  a 
habit  of  claiming  that  what  he  said  was  due  to  the  "Inner 
Light."  On  one  occasion,  after  a  melancholy  hour  of 
preaching  from  this  Friend  an  acidulous  neighbor  rose  and 
said,  "If  God  calls  men  to  preach  is  it  not  strange  that  He 


6o4      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


does  not  give  them  something  to  say?"  and  sat  down. 
Doubtless  many  of  the  Friends  present,  who  had  been  bored 
spiritually  for  years,  rose  and  remarked,  "I  concur  with  this 
Friend." 

The  simple  and  dignified  marriage  ceremony  of  Friends 
has  been  described  elsewhere.  But  Quakers  are  but  human, 
and  once  a  very  young  and  modest  Friend  rose  in  the  Weare 
Meeting  to  speak  the  formula.  He  entirely  forgot  the 
words  he  had  been  committing  to  memory  for  a  week  or 
more,  and  glanced  wildly  about  for  aid.  His  eyes  finally 
rested  on  the  demure  bride,  and  to  the  amazement  of  the 
audience,  he  ejaculated  faintly,  'T  love  Sally,"  and  sat 
down.  The  bride  then  rose  and  repeated  the  correct  formula 
and  they  became  man  and  wife  by  the  will  of  the  indulgent 
congregation.  'T  love  Sally,"  was  to  the  point  and  emi- 
nently satisfactory. 

In  1835  John  Warren,  a  Friend  from  Maine,  attended 
the  London  Yearly  Meeting.  After  a  silence  he  rose  and 
said,  that  "a  few  words  had  much  impressed  his  mind  which 
he  believed  he  ought  to  express  at  that  time."  The  meeting 
listened  expectantly,  as  he  was  a  man  of  wide  experience; 
but  to  the  amazement  of  the  English  Friends  he  remarked, 
"when  I  have  nothing  to  say,  I  say  nothing,"  and  sat  down. 
A  peculiarity  of  many  ministers  was  an  extraordinary  facial 
expression  which  preceded  the  prayer,  exhortation  or  ser- 
mon. This  made  a  profound  impression  on  my  youthful 
mind,  as  it  was  my  grandmother's  custom  to  rebuke  me  for 
various  lapses  during  the  service  by  calling  my  attention 
to  the  agonized  expression  on  "Benjamin's  face,"  the  infer- 
ence being  that  it  was  produced  by  my  conduct.  In  later 
years  I  learned  that  these  symptoms  were  but  premonitions 


r 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  605 


of  the  forthcoming  discourse.  This  facial  contortion  was 
mentioned  by  Samuel  Alexander  of  England  in  describing 
Charles  Osbourne  of  North  Carolina  and  John  Wilbur  of 
Rhode  Island:  'T  have  never  forgotten  their  appearance  as 
they  walked  into  the  meeting,  two  tall  men  Friends  with  un- 
usually broad-brimmed  drab  beaver  hats,  long  drab  coats 
almost  to  their  heels,  and  grave  faces  bearing  traces  of  men- 
tal feelings  which  we  understand  as  'exercises'  only  wanting 
the  opportunity  for  vent." 

Colored  Friends  were  rare  in  the  North.  I  have  never 
seen  but  one  or  two.  A  white  Friend  was  trying  to  learn 
the  circumstances  of  a  poor  colored  man,  asking  him  some 
leading  questions,  when  he  replied,  "Some  days,  brother,  I 
gets  ten  cents,  an'  I  lives  down  to  it;  some  days  I  makes  four 
bits  an'  I  lives  up  to  it — but  I  lives  right  along  jes'  the 
same." 

The  reminiscences  of  American  Friends  in  the  Journal  of 
the  Friends  Historical  Society  (English)  are  very  interest- 
ing, showing  that  the  English  noted  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Western  American  ministers  ;  good  men,  but  not  burdened 
with  the  social  amenities  and  presenting  a  strong  contrast  to 
the  Joseph  John  Gurney  or  Stephen  Grellett  type.  Samuel 
Alexander's  critical  notes  refer  to  a  number  of  Friends: 
•William  Flanner,  Ohio;  Jonathan  Taylor,  Pennsylvania; 
Christopher  Healey,  Rhode  Island;  Stephen  Grellett,  Elisha 
Bates,  Ohio;  Almy  Jenkins,  Rhode  Island;  Dougan  and 
Asenath  Clark,  Lindley  Murray  Hoag,  Sarah  Emlen,  Susan 
Rowland,  James  Jones,  Thomas  Arnett,  John  and  Eliza- 
beth Meader,  Hannah  Rhodes,  and  Eli  and  Sybil  Jones. 
Nearly  all  of  these  ministers  made  strong  and  lasting  im- 
pressions on  their  English  auditors.   Of  Sarah  Emlen,  Alex- 


6o6      WAYS  AND  CUSTOxMS  OF  FRIENDS 


ander  says:  "I  felt  I  was  nearer  heaven  than  I  had  ever 
been  before,  as  she  poured  out  her  soul  in  a  prayer,  the 
solemn,  and  indeed  awfully  absorbing  power  attending 
which,  cannot  be  described  in  any  human  soul." 

The  Friends  established  a  number  of  schools  and 
colleges  for  the  education  of  their  own  members,  and  others 
which  have  been  notable  additions  to  the  system  of  educa- 
tion of  the  country.  The  founder  of  Brown  University  and 
its  first  President,  Moses  Brown,  the  Quaker  philanthropist, 
an  eminent  and  distinguished  citizen  of  Rhode  Island, 
founded  the  famous  Friends  School  of  Providence.  The 
beginning  of  the  institution  can  be  traced  back  to  the  school 
of  Isaac  Lawton  of  Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  1784.  This 
was  carried  on  for  four  years,  then  was  discontinued  until 
1819,  when  it  was  re-opened  as  the  Friends  School  of  Provi- 
dence, and  is  still  a  flourishing  institution  under  the  title 
of  the  ''Moses  Brown  School."  Moses  Brown  was  its  most 
devoted  patron,  aiding  it  financially  and  in  gifts  of  land, 
while  his  son,  Obadiah  Brown,  left  it  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.   Whittier  wrote  of  it : 

"Not  vainly  the  gift  its  founder  has  made. 
Not  prayerless  the  stones  of  its  corners  were  laid. 
The  blessing  of  Him  whom  in  secret  they  sought 
Has  owned  the  good  work  the  fathers  have  wrought." 

In  the  school  there  is  an  excellent  portrait  of  the  poet,  pre- 
sented by  Charles  F.  Coffin  of  Lynn,  one  of  its  trustees. 
There  is  hardly  an  old  colonial  Quaker  family  of  New 
England  dating  back  to  the  Puritan  days  but  had  some  mem- 
ber at  some  time  in  this  school,  and  some  sterling  men  and 
women  have  been  sent  out  into  the  world  from  it.  How 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  607 


this  was  carried  out  in  families  is  illustrated  in  my  own, 
where  my  grandfather  and  grandmother,  father  and  mother, 
and  various  aunts,  cousins  and  distant  relatives  all  attended 
the  school.  In  time  I  was  sent  there,  the  school  then  being  in 
charge  of  the  late  Albert  Smiley,  who  had  been  an  instructor 
at  Haverford  and  who  held  the  office  for  nineteen  years.  He 
was  a  trustee  of  Bryn  Mawr  College,  Brown  University, 
Pomona  College  and  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  State  Normal  School  at  New  Paltz,  New  York.  Albert 
Smiley  was  active  in  many  lines  of  philanthropic  work, 
and  his  business  ability  has  been  displayed  in  the  careful 
carrying  out  of  an  extraordinary  hotel  project  at  Lake 
Mohonk,  New  York.  Public  interest  was  aroused  in  this 
work  by  the  establishment  here  of  what  Albert  Smiley  called 
the  Mohonk  Conference,  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Indians, 
and  International  Arbitration.  For  over  twenty  years  these 
conferences  have  continued,  the  delegates  among  the 
distinguished  men  and  women  of  the  nation  numbering 
several  hundred  annually,  the  guests  of  the  founder. 
Over  twenty  thousand  delegates  have  assembled  here  to 
discuss  the  outlook  for  the  negro,  the  Indian  and  for  the 
peace  which  George  Fox  advocated  in  1650.  Many  well 
known  Americans  have  been  presiding  officers  in  the 
twenty-seven  years  of  the  conferences,  among  them  Clin- 
ton B.  Fisk,  M.  E.  Gates,  Philip  C.  Garrett,  S.  J.  Barrows, 
John  D.  Long,  Senator  Edmunds,  C.  J.  Bonaparte,  Lyman 
Abbott,  A.  S.  Draper  and  Elmer  E.  Brown.  The  liberal 
nature  of  the  Institution  can  be  understood  by  a  remark  of 
S.  J.  Barrows: — "It  struck  me  as  interesting  that  Luther's 
hymn  was  being  played  by  a  Catholic  priest  in  a  Quaker 
house,  and  that  a  Jew  had  written  the  music." 


6o8      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


Albert  Smiley  owned  a  large  estate  in  Redlands,  Califor- 
nia, where  his  philanthropic  activities  have  been  noticeable. 
This  is  Smiley  Heights,  a  natural  park  in  a  winter  garden  of 
flowers,  facing  the  snow-clad  Sierras. 

The  school  at  Providence  was  a  boarding  school  for  boys 
and  girls,  and  a  preparative  school  under  the  general  care 
of  a  committee  of  Friends,  among  whom  were  Dr.  Tobey, 
Charls  F.  Coffin,  and  members  of  the  Chase,  Bassett,  How- 
land,  Bukin,  Buffum  and  other  families.  One  of  the  treas- 
urers of  the  Providence  School  was  Allen  Jay,  a  well  known 
Western  Friend,  who  gave  an  interesting  illustration  of 
Quaker  conscience  in  accepting  the  position.  He  evidently 
did  not  desire  to  leave  the  field  in  which  he  was  engaged, 
but  he  says  in  his  autobiography,  "This  offer  (made  by 
Albert  Smiley)  after  some  consideration  my  wife  and  I  felt 
it  right  to  accept,  believing  that  the  time  had  come  to  leave 
the  Yearly  Meeting  that  was  dear  to  us,  for  a  fear  rested 
upon  my  mind  that  Friends  paid  too  much  attention  to  my 
judgment.  In  other  words,  I  was  having  more  influence  in 
the  Yearly  Meeting  than  v/as  best  for  any  one  man  to  exer- 
cise for  his  own  good,  or  for  the  good  of  the  church."  It  is 
evident  that  Allen  Jay  would  not  have  made  a  successful 
Caesar. 

In  1830  a  few  Friends  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
recognizing  the  demand  for  Higher  Education,  founded 
Haverford  College.  The  dominant  note  in  the  minds  of  the 
founders  was  "to  combine  sound  and  liberal  instruction  in 
literature  and  science  with  a  religious  care  over  the  morals 
and  manners,  thus  affording  to  the  youth  of  our  Society  an 
opportunity  of  acquiring  an  education  equal  in  all  respects 
to  that  which  can  be  obtained  at  colleges." 


r 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  609 


The  college  was  begun  in  Haverford,  Delaware  county, 
Pennsylvania,  about  nine  miles  west  from  the  center  of 
Philadelphia,  and  gradually,  through  the  beneficence  of 
Friends,  assumed  its  present  condition  as  one  of  the  most 
influential  and  important  colleges  in  America.  In  the  selec- 
tion of  the  site  its  managers  said:  "We  wished  to  procure 
a  farm  in  a  neighborhood  of  unquestionable  salubrity — 
within  a  short  distance  of  Friends'  meeting,  of  easy  access 
from  this  city  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  ^  *  *  *  * 
recommended  by  the  beauty  of  the  scenery  and  a  retired 
situation."  At  present  the  grounds  consist  of  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  acres,  valued  at  over  one  and  a  half  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  its  destiny  being  to  become  an  intimate 
part  of  Philadelphia  in  the  future,  it  will,  in  time,  be  one 
of  the  most  valuable  properties  in  the  state.  The  grounds 
are  very  beautiful,  reminding  one  of  the  great  English 
estates,  while  the  many  buildings  display  taste,  dignity  and 
repose,  suggestive  of  high  culture. 

The  aims  of  the  college  "have  been  gradually  developing, 
and  its  function  is  becoming  more  and  more  clear — "to  en- 
courage the  growth,  among  a  limited  number  of  young  men, 
of  vigorous  bodies,  scholarly  minds,  strong  characters,  and 
a  real  religious  experience." 

It  is  this  dominant  idea  that  has  given  Haverford  its 
great  influence  and  for  which  President  Sharpless  and  his 
colleagues  are  to  be  congratulated.  While  the  student  body 
is  large,  the  essential  idea  has  been  to  retain  the  advantages 
of  a  small  college,  and  as  the  bounties  of  Friends  have  en- 
abled the  college  to  maintain  a  very  large  faculty  in  pro- 
portion to  its  size,  it  is  admirably  arranged  to  produce  the 
39 


6io      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


results  which  come  from  the  close  association  between  teach- 
er and  pupil. 

While  Haverford  College  is  essentially  a  Friends  institu- 
tion, it  is  in  effect  undenominational,  with  a  broad  and  pro- 
gressive spirit.  To  quote:  "In  accordance  with  the  modern 
ideas  of  religious  and  moral  education,  the  students  enjoy 
ample  liberty,  safe-guarded  by  the  wholesome  physical  life, 
by  the  traditions  of  the  College,  and  by  the  intimate  associ- 
ation with  the  professors  and  fellow-students.  The  deep 
religious  spirit  bequeathed  by  the  Quaker  founders  has  been 
carefully  cherished,  and  high  ideals  of  life  and  conduct  are 
maintained,  but  in  the  admission  of  students  and  in  the 
appointment  of  instructors  there  are  no  denominational  dis- 
tinction." 

In  the  Corporation  and  Board  of  Managers  are  many 
notable  names,  as  T.  Wistar  Brown,  J.  S.  Stokes,  Asa  S. 
Wing,  T.  Wistar  Brown,  Charles  J.  Rhodes.  The  president 
is  the  distinguished  Friend  and  author.  Dr.  Isaac  Sharpless. 

Swarthmore  College,  one  of  the  influential  and  strong 
colleges  of  America,  was  founded  by  the  followers  of  Elias 
Hicks  and  opened  to  the  public  in  1869  at  Swarthmore, 
Pennsylvania.  Under  the  ripe  scholarship  of  Joseph  Swain, 
its  president,  it  has  made  itself  felt  among  the  first  institu- 
tions of  the  kind  in  this  country.  It  stands  on  a  fine  campus 
of  over  two  hundred  acres  by  which  runs  the  attractive  gorge 
of  Crum  Creek.  The  farm  of  Benjamin  West,  who  painted 
the  famous  picture  of  Penn's  treaty,  is  included  in  the 
grounds.  The  college  includes  some  fine  buildings,  Parrish 
Hall,  Science  Hall,  two  gymnasiums,  Wharton  Hall  and 
the  Chemical  Building. 

Swarthmore  has  two  Fellowships  and  seventeen  Scholar- 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS      61 1 


ships,  and  its  productive  funds  amount  to  over  one  million 
dollars.  Swarthmore  is  famed  for  its  remarkable  Friends' 
Historical  Library,  one  of,  if  not  the  most  valuable  libra- 
ries of  the  kind  in  America.  It  has  a  general  library  of  32,- 
000  volumes. 

Swarthmore  was  the  second  co-educational  college  east  of 
the  Alleghanies.  It  is  well-equipped,  particularly  in  the 
departments  of  science  and  engineering. 

While  Bryn  Mawr  is  not  a  Quaker  or  even  a  denomina- 
tional college,  it  received,  to  a  large  extent,  its  initial  inspira- 
tion from  the  Friends,  or  descendants  of  Friends,  who  have 
had  a  militant  influence  in  its  assumption  under  President 
Thomas  of  a  predominating  influence  for  high  culture  and 
intellectual  attainment  among  women's  colleges  in  America. 
In  visiting  Bryn  Mawr  I  was  continually  impressed  with  the 
thought  that  I  was  in  England.  The  lay  of  the  land,  the 
splendid  vistas  of  highly  cultivated  woodland,  and  above 
all  the  fine  English  Renaissance  style  of  architecture  which 
has  been  carried  out,  suggestive  of  culture,  refinement  and 
learning  in  its  broadest  sense,  and  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

Bryn  Mawr  was  founded  on  the  donation  of  a  Friend,  and 
its  distinguished  president  is  a  descendant  of  Friends,  and 
the  fine  morale,  the  dignity  that  imposes  itself  upon  one 
we  can  well  imagine  is  the  spirit  of  the  best  thought  of  the 
Friends.  Bryn  Mawr  is  not  a  denominational  college,  and 
its  strong  and  virile  influence  for  the  highest  standards  is 
the  result. 

In  North  Carolina  the  Friends  founded  Guilford  College, 
that  has  had  a  useful  career,  and  there  is  an  excellent  college 
of  Friends  in  the  town  of  Whittier,  California,  in  charge  of 


6i2      WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS 


Dr.  Coffin,  one  of  the  distinguished  educators  among 
Friends. 

Aside  from  Guilford  College,  with  its  property  valued 
at  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  the  Friends  in 
North  Carolina  have  the  Belvedere  Academy  in  Eastern 
Quarter,  established  in  1827,  Woodland  Academy  in  Wayne 
County.  In  1868  there  were  forty  Monthly  Meeting  schools 
with  an  enrollment  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  students.  There  is  also  a  Friends  University 
of  wide  influence  at  Wichita,  Kansas. 

The  old  Friends  meeting-houses  in  America  are  of  great 
historic  interest.  The  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  meeting  is 
typical,  though  not  of  great  age.  The  old  Wing  house  in 
Sandwich,  where  the  first  meeting  was  held  in  America,  is 
said  to  be  still  standing,  and  a  movement  is  on  foot  to  have 
"Christopher  Holder's  Hollow,"  where  the  first  meetings 
were  held  by  Holder  and  Copeland,  set  apart  as  a  park  in 
memoriam.  Fine  old  meeting-houses  are  to  be  seen  in 
Salem,  Providence,  New  Bedford  and  many  New  England 
towns.  It  is  well  for  the  bustling  materialistic  man  of  the 
twentieth  century  to  stop  for  an  hour,  and  step  into  a  Phila- 
delphia meeting,  and  rest  his  soul  in  peace,  as  here  it  can  be 
found,  untainted,  untarnished  by  the  touch  of  time. 

If  one  wishes  to  study  the  real  Friends  of  to-day,  Phila- 
delphia must  be  the  hiatus,  and  the  history  of  the  Friends  of 
this  region,  the  example  they  have  set,  and  are  still  setting, 
is  worthy  of  emulation;  showing  that  the  work  of  George 
Fox  and  his  followers  is  still  to  the  fore  in  the  city  of 
William  Penn.  The  Friends  here  have  a  perfect  organiza- 
tion. Schools  for  both  sexes,  papers,  publishing  houses, 
libraries  of  great  value,  the  Friends  Historical  Society,  and 


WAYS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  FRIENDS  613 


an  aristocracy  without  knowing  it.  There  is  hardly  an  old 
family  of  prominence  in  Philadelphia  but  has  Quaker  con- 
nection, and  is  proud  of  it,  and  the  names  of  Biddle,  Floyd, 
Logan,  Kite,  Morris,  Thomas,  Vaux,  and  others,  mark  a 
definite  meaning  in  the  country  at  large. 

In  1850  the  Friends  were  strong  in  Barton,  Lancaster  and 
Berlin,  Massachusetts,  and  vicinity,  especially  about  Ux- 
bridge,  where  still  stands  the  old  brick  meeting-house  erected 
one  hundred  and  thirty-two  years  ago,  in  1770.  The  com- 
mittee, composed  of  Adam  Harkness,  William  Buffum  and 
David  Speare,  reported  that  it  would  cost  about  one  thou- 
sand dollars.  Up  to  1783  this  meeting  belonged  to  South- 
field,  when  with  Leicester,  Northbridge  and  Richmond,  New 
Hampshire,  it  became  known  as  the  Uxbridge  Monthly 
Meeting,  and  at  one  time  included  Woonsocket,  Pomfret, 
and  Connecticut,  Meeting.  Scores  of  distinguished  Quaker 
preachers  met  in  the  historic  old  meeting-house.  Here  some 
of  the  ancestors  of  ex-President  Taft  worshipped.  Uxbridge 
was  a  stronghold  of  the  Bassetts,  Aldriches  and  Earles,  de- 
scendants of  the  original  Friends.  The  approved  ministers 
of  the  meeting  were  Daniel  Aldrich,  Richard  Mowry,  Job 
Scott,  Israel  Sabin,  Royal  Southwick,  Daniel  Clapp,  Tim- 
othy K.  Earle,  John  B.  Daniels  and  Salome  C.  Wheeler. 

In  1904  the  Philadelphia  Friends  celebrated  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  building  of  the  Arch  Street 
meeting  house;  a  notable  event,  as  in  this  old  and  honored 
building  the  famous  Friends  of  the  world  have  preached  dur- 
ing the  last  momentous  century.  During  this  time  profound 
and  fundamental  changes  have  taken  place: — unions, 
dynasties,  sects  and  denominations,  kingdoms  and  govern- 
ments have  risen  and  passed  away,  modern  invention  has 
changed  everything. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


THE  QUAKERS  IN  LITERATURE. 

If  the  Quakers  have  not  produced  a  great  genius  in  litera- 
ture, they  have  accomplished  much  in  the  field  of  literar\' 
endeavor.  So  conscientious  were  they,  so  fearful  of  being 
considered  vain  or  guilty  of  paying  attention  to  things  not 
worthy,  that  they  often  went  to  the  other  extreme.  This 
is  shown  in  many  ways.  Friends  were  advised  to  read  only 
such  books  as  were  considered  acceptable;  hence  the  library 
of  the  average  Friends  of  the  1 8th- 19th  centuries,  living  in 
the  country  particularly,  would  be  a  prototype  of  all.  There 
would  be  all  the  available  Friends'  books,  as  Bess,  Gough, 
Sewel's  Translation,  Fox's  Journal,  and  as  many  of  the  old 
books  as  they  could  afford,  among  which  "Piety  Promoted" 
was  nearly  always  included,  also  "The  Martyrs."  The 
"Friends  Review"  was  the  weekly  medium,  and  gave, 
briefly,  the  history  of  the  day  among  Friends. 

The  library  of  the  Quaker  in  large  towns,  as  Lynn,  New 
Bedford  or  the  great  cities,  was  another  matter.  That  of 
my  father  was  rich  in  the  classics  and  perfectly  equipped 
with  all  the  poetical  and  important  works  of  the  day.  In 
fact,  the  library  of  the  well-educated  Quaker  was  that  of 
any  gentleman  of  high  culture  and  education. 

The  Quakers  were  so  impregnated  with  piety,  and  the 
continual  attention  to  the  promotion  of  piety  among  them- 
selves and  their  brethren,  and  the  world  at  large,  that  it 
cropped  out  at  all  times.  I  doubt  if  a  Quaker  letter  was 
ever  written  that  was  not  a  sermon.  I  have  seen  many 
which  emanated  in  New  England  between  1850  and  1900, 


r 


THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE  615 


and  they  were,  especially  the  older  ones,  filled  with  admoni- 
tions, pocket  sermons,  admirable  in  their  way,  but  extraord- 
inary as  showing  how  the  business  or  social  letter  was  invar- 
iably made  the  medium  for  spiritual  advice  and  admonition. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  only  in  modern  times  have  the 
graves  of  Quakers  been  marked.  In  the  early  days  a  mon- 
ument, or  a  gravestone,  or  an  inscription,  was  considered  a 
vanity,  and  so  valuable  historical  links  have  been  lost. 
Theoretically,  the  Quaker  idea  was  right,  as  nothing  can  be 
more  gruesome,  more  of  a  reflection  upon  the  culture  of  a 
people  than  the  extreme  exhibition  of  grief  in  the  grave- 
yards of  all  countries,  whether  it  is  the  extraordinary  sur- 
face tombs  of  New  Orleans,  the  average  modern  cemetery, 
the  picture  galleries  of  Mentone  graveyards,  or  the  remark- 
able marble  exhibit  at  Campo  Santo,  Genoa. 

A  wonderful  contrast  to  these  is  the  graveyard  of  Jordons, 
or  at  Frenchay,  where  lie  many  of  the  old  Friends.  I  have 
referred  to  this,  as  this  fear  of  being  led  into  false  pride  had 
a  bearing  upon  the  literature  of  Friends.  Many  a  Quaker 
flower  of  literature  was  "born  to  blush  unseen  and  waste  its 
sweetness  on  the  desert  air."  Quakerism  was  not  designed 
to  cultivate  and  feed  the  imagination ;  it  served  to  repress  it. 
A  remarkable  instance  of  this  was  seen  in  my  family,  in  my 
grandmother,  Rachael  Bassett  Holder,  a  type  of  the  strictest 
and  most  conservative  of  Friends,  who  for  years  sat  on  the 
"high  seat"  of  the  Lynn  meeting.  A  more  saint-like  or  con- 
scientious person  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine,  yet  she  had 
so  strong  a  desire  to  write  verse  that,  apparently,  she  could 
not  resist,  and  her  friend,  John  G.  Whittier,  said,  had  she 
been  able  to  give  rein  to  the  impulse,  she  would  have  become 
a  more  than  remarkable  writer  in  prose  and  verse.  She 


6i6        THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


wrote  semi-secretly,  and  destroyed  most  of  her  work;  but 
few  poems  remained  at  her  death  to  show  the  latent  prom- 
ise and  tell  the  story  of  literary  endeavor  struggling  with  a 
false  idea  of  the  vanities  of  the  world. 

John  G.  Whittier,  the  leading  literary  light  among  the 
Quakers  in  America,  possessed  this  feeling  to  a  certain  de- 
gree; at  least  he  was  very  loath  to  speak  of  his  literary 
work.  Whittier  will  rank  as  the  greatest  Quaker  poet,  and 
his  work  has  had  a  beneficent  influence  on  the  literature  of 
the  world  of  his  time.  Whittier  took  many  of  his  subjects 
from  the  early  history  of  the  Quakers,  calling  attention  to 
the  ills  and  misfortunes  of  the  people,  and  thus  serving  to 
correct  abuses  in  laws  and  customs.  Few  poets  have  been 
more  beloved  than  Whittier.  He  spent  many  of  his  sum- 
mers in  Hampton,  an  old  stronghold  of  the  Quakers  and  of 
Edward  Gove,  who  was  sent  to  the  Tower;  but  such  was 
the  curiosity  of  the  public  to  see  him  that  it  was  doubtless 
often  a  severe  strain  on  his  fund  of  good  nature  and  health. 
These  visitors  he  called  "Pilgrims."  One,  a  woman,  insisted 
upon  reading  to  him  some  of  his  own  verses, — a  species  of 
martyrdom  he  especially  disliked.  She  completed  the  enter- 
tainment by  asking  for  a  lock  of  his  hair.  This  was  too 
much  for  the  gentle  poet,  who,  as  he  opened  the  door,  said, 
still  smiling,  "Madam,  I  should  think  thee  could  see  that 
I  have  no  locks  to  spare."  Whittier  died  in  the  old  Gove 
homestead,  at  Hampton  Falls,  of  the  author's  kinswoman, 
Sarah  A.  Gove. 

In  modem  times  the  Quakers  or  descendants  of  Quakers 
have  produced  many  prominent  men  in  literature.  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  descendant  of  English  Quakers.  In  American 
science,  Edward  Cope,  the  distinguished  paleontologist  and 


r 


JOUy  GREEM.EAF  WHITTIER 


ALBERT  K.  SMILEY 
Of  the  Mohonk  Conference 


THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE  617 


writer,  was  a  Quaker.  Joseph  Bassett  Holder  of  Lynn  and 
New  York  was  author  and  scientist,  the  first  curator  of 
Zoology  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  and 
author  of  many  papers  and  books.  In  Philadelphia  many 
writers  can  be  found,  either  Friends  or  descendants  of 
Friends,  showing  that  the  spark  of  literature  has  not  been 
held  in  entire  abeyance. 

For  a  sect  or  a  people  who  were  not  given  to  literary  pur- 
suits, the  early  Quakers  produced  a  remarkable  assortment 
of  books  and  pamphlets,  all  of  which  are  enumerated  in  the 
pondrous  tome  of  Smith's  Bibliography.  In  Devonshire 
House,  London,  the  headquarters  of  English  Friends,  an  ex- 
traordinary collection  of  these  ancient  books  has  been  added, 
due  to  the  interest  of  Mr.  Norman  Penny,  Isaac  Sharp  and 
others.  This  library  cannot  be  examined  without  giving  the 
impression  that  the  early  Friends  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers, were  prolific  writers  and  not  backward  in  replying  to 
their  enemies  in  vigorous  terms. 

In  the  present  volume  an  illustration  of  these  ancient 
papers  and  pamphlets,  by  Christopher  Holder,  has  been 
given,  as  being  very  rare ;  there  is  but  a  single  copy  in 
Devonshire  House  and  one  in  the  British  Museum.  This  is 
charactristic  of  the  very  early  literary  efforts  of  the  Friends. 
.Bowden  wrote  a  standard  history,  while  Sewel  and  Bess 
have  also  been  the  source  of  material  for  modern  writers 
and  histories  of  the  Friends.  The  story  of  Bess  was  written 
to  answer  the  attacks  of  the  Conformists,  and  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  King  to  the  treatment  of  Quakers,  while 
Sewel  and  Bowden  wrote  accurate  and  elaborate  histories 
for  posterity.  Both  of  these  histories,  which  are  standards 
of  excellence  and  accuracy,  are  pro-Quaker,  yet  a  careful  com- 


6i8        THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


parison  of  the  statements  with  documentary  history  shows 
that  the  several  authors  in  no  sense  exaggerated  the  situation. 

Among  the  notable  books  of  Quakers  stands  the  Journal 
of  George  Fox,  written  under  duress  by  a  plain  man,  whose 
earnestness,  absolute  sincerity  and  singleness  of  purpose 
cannot  be  questioned.  This  work  has  been  criticised  as  being 
devoid  of  literary  style;  but  Fox  did  not  pretend  to  be  a 
scholar;  what  interested  him  was  the  degradation  of  public 
morals  of  his  age,  and  all  his  literary  efforts  were  directed 
to  reforming  the  people.  This  one  book  marks  him  as  an 
extraordinary  figure,  standing  out  brilliantly  against  the 
dark  background  of  moral  illiteracy  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Fox  was  a  prolific  writer.  If  he  could  not  reach  a 
field  by  voice  or  a  personal  visit,  he  wrote  a  letter  which  was 
a  sermon,  and  sent  it. 

The  life  of  George  Fox  has  been  written  by  many  Friends 
in  modern  times,  notably  Rufus  M.  Jones,  Thomas  Hodgkin 
and  others.  William  Penn  was  a  voluminous  author.  Fox 
was  brusque  at  times  and  wrote  to  the  point.  He  was  the 
Cromwell  of  the  Quakers,  if  one  can  imagine  a  Cromwell 
who  would  not  strike  a  blow  and  who  would  literally  turn 
the  other  cheek,  while  William  Penn  was  essentially  a  cava- 
lier of  the  period,  adapted  to  a  Quaker  environment.  He 
was  at  once  refined,  cultivated  and  diplomatic.  It  was  Penn 
who  said,  'T  know  no  religion  which  destroys  courtesy,  civil- 
ity and  kindness."  Penn  wrote  a  large  number  of  contro- 
versial pamphlets.  One  of  the  first  was  "Truth  Exalted," 
a  defense  of  Quakerism.  It  was  this  book  which  the  genial, 
suave  Pepys  described  as  "a  rediculous  nonsensical  book." 
This  was  followed  by  "The  Guide  Mistaken,"  which  con- 
tained, according  to  his  enemies,  "damnable  doctrines,"  and 


THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE  619 


was  so  severely  criticised  that  Penn  and  Whitehead  chal- 
lenged his  critics  to  a  public  debate,  which  ended  in  a  riotous 
free  fight.  This  was  followed  by  "The  Sunday  Founda- 
tion," an  attack  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  held  by  the 
Church  of  England.  God,  he  said,  was  not  to  be  divided, 
but  was  one  pure,  entire,  and  actual  being,  who,  in  the  full- 
ness of  time,  sent  forth  His  Son  as  the  true  light.  ''Mistake 
me  not,"  he  says,  "we  have  never  disowned  a  Father,  Word, 
and  Spirit  which  are  one."  Even  the  satirical  Pepys  was 
stirred  by  this  work,  as  he  says,  "I  find  it  so  well  writ,  as  I 
think  it  is  too  good  for  him  ever  to  have  writ  it,  and  it  is  a 
serious  sort  of  a  book  and  not  fit  for  every  one  to  read." 
Penn  was  but  twenty-four  when  he  wrote  this  denouncement 
of  the  Trinity.  The  Bishops  of  London  promptly  charged 
him  with  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ,  a  crime  at  that 
period  by  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and  the  author  presently 
found  himself  in  the  Tower.  Here  in  jail,  like  Bunyan  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  he  wrote  his  one  book,  which  is  pub- 
lished to-day,  "No  Cross,  No  Crown,"  an  argument  for 
primitive  Christianity.  To  prove  that  he  had  not  denied 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  Penn  wrote,  "Innocency  with  her 
open  Face."  It  is  said  that  it  convinced  the  Duke  of  York 
that  he  was  innocent,  whereupon  he  was  released.  Penn 
later  wrote  his  "Treatise  of  Oaths,"  in  which  his  text  was, 
"But  I  say  unto  you,  swear  not  at  all."  He  explained  the 
oath  as  a  relic  of  barbarism.  The  use  of  "so  help  me  God," 
we  find  from  the  law  of  the  Almains,  of  King  Clotharius. 
The  laying  on  of  the  three  fingers  above  the  book,  is  to  sig- 
nify the  Trinity;  the  thumb  and  the  little  finger  under  the 
book  are  to  signify  the  damnation  of  the  body  and  soul  if 
they  swear." 


620        THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


When  Penn  was  in  retirement  he  wrote  various  defenses 
of  Quakerism.  "The  New  Athenians,  no  Noble  Bereans," 
"A  Key  to  the  Quaker  Religion,"  "Fruits  of  Solitude,"  and, 
more  important  than  all,  "An  Essay  Towards  the  Present 
Peace  of  Europe,"  in  which  he  advocated  what  was  practi- 
cally the  modern  system  of  arbitration. 

Robert  Barclay  was  one  of  the  Quaker  writers,  who,  like 
Gray,  was  made  famous  by  one  book,  "The  Apology,"  which 
he  wrote  in  Latin  as  well  as  in  English.  It  is  not  the  inten- 
tion to  more  than  suggest  some  of  the  more  important  of  the 
Quakers  who  have  left  literary  monuments  to  their  name, 
and  we  pass  the  writings,  sermons,  letters,  journals  and 
books  of  Joseph  John  Gurney,  Elizabeth  Fry,  and  others 
well  known.  Thomas  EUwood  has  left  his  "Life,"  showing 
him  to  have  been  a  writer  of  poetry  as  well  as  of  pros.  He 
wrote  thirty  or  more  books  and  pamphlets,  and  after  his 
death  a  volume  entitled  "A  Collection  of  Poems  on  Various 
Subjects,"  was  published. 

EUwood  was  taught  Latin  by  his  friend  John  Milton,  and 
it  was  EUwood  who  suggested  to  the  blind  poet  to  write 
"Paradise  Regained."  The  incident  is  referred  to  in  the 
"Life  of  EUwood."  Milton  had  sent  EUwood  a  copy  of  the 
book,  asking  for  his  opinion  of  it.  EUwood's  reply  was, 
"Thou  has  said  much  here  of  Paradise  lost;  but  what  hast 
thou  to  say  about  Paradise  found*?"  Two  years  later  Mil- 
ton showed  him  "Paradise  Regained,"  and  said,  "This  is 
owing  to  you,  for  you  put  it  into  my  head,  by  the  question 
you  put  to  me  at  Chalfont,  which  before  I  had  no 
thought  of." 

Other  Friends  with  a  literary  gift  were  Joseph  Be  vans 
Braithwaite,  Isaac  Braithwaite,  Thomas  Chalkley,  author  of 


THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE  621 


the  interesting  Journal  about  the  World,  who,  when  but 
nine  years  old,  was  carried  home  from  school  in  London, 
where  he  was  struck  with  mud  and  stones.  "Why  do  you 
abuse  this  boy^"  asked  a  looker-on  who  had  interfered. 
"Why,  don't  you  see,  the  brat  is  a  Quaker,"  replied  the 
man,  "and  it  is  no  more  a  sin  to  kill  such  as  him  than  to 
kill  a  dog."  Daniel  Wheeler,  famous  traveller  and  friend 
of  the  Emperor  of  Russia  in  1817,  Joseph  Sturge,  who  in 
1836  presented  a  volume  to  the  British  public  on  the  horrors 
of  the  slave  trade,  Margaret  Fell,  the  wife  of  George  Fox, 
Richard  Hubberthorne,  the  soldier  and  minister,  who  has 
left  many  evidences  of  his  literary  ability,  from  his  criticism 
of  the  law  to  "The  Twelve  Charges,"  an  answer  to  the  Oath 
of  AUiegiance.  Stephen  Grellett  wrote  a  most  interesting 
journal  of  life.  Thomas  Pole,  John  Burrough,  Christopher 
and  Anthony  Holder,  John  Ap  John  of  Wales  and 
many  more  are  deserving  mention  for  their  books,  pam- 
phlets, letters  or  epistles,  or  contributions  to  the  literature 
of  the  Quakers. 

Friends  were  often  prolific  writers.  "The  Journal"  of 
Isaac  Hammer,  "The  Archdale  papers,"  "The  Letters,"  etc., 
of  Governor  John  Archdale  of  North  Carolina,  "The 
Friends  of  Virginia,"  by  Jordan,  "Journal  of  Hannah  C. 
Backhouse,"  "Life  of  Samuel  Bownas,"  the  writings  of 
William  Edmundson,  David  Ferris,  John  Fothergill,  Sam- 
uel Foothergill,  John  Griffin,  Elias  Hicks,  Joseph  Hoag, 
Stanley  Pumphrey,  Thomas  Scathergood,  and  many  more 
attest  to  the  literary  tendencies  of  the  quakers,  many  of 
whose  writings  can  be  found  in  the  British  Museum  and 
Devonshire  House,  London,  and  in  America  in  the  Friends 
Historical  Library  of  Swarthmore  College,  in  Pennsylvania, 


622        THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society  or  the  libraries  of  the 
Orthodox  and  Hicksite  Friends  in  New  York  or  Philadel- 
phia; also  in  the  Eaton  Street  meeting-house  and  Park 
Avenue  meeting-house,  Baltimore.  There  is  also  a  good 
library  in  Guilford  College,  North  Carolina,  while  one  of 
the  finest  private  libraries  in  America  is  that  collected  by 
Charles  Roberts  of  Philadelphia.  Works  on  Quakerism  by 
Quakers  of  the  day  are  numerous,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to 
mention  all,  as  it  is  not  the  intention  to  present  a  complete 
list  of  Quaker  books,  but  rather  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  despite  the  often  quoted  statement  that  the  Friends  paid 
no  attention  to  the  production  of  books,  that  their  literary 
sense  was  atrophied,  the  facts  show  the  opposite  to  be  true. 

Among  the  modern  Friends  who  have  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  field  of  literature,  Rufus  M.  Jones,  M.  A.,  D. 
Litt.,  professor  of  philosophy  in  Haverford  College,  Penn- 
sylvania, stands  among  the  first.  His  studies  in  Mystical 
Religions,  Boeme  and  other  mystical  Influences,  and  the 
Quakers  in  the  American  Colonies,  being  particularly  nota- 
ble as  valuable  contributions  to  the  history  of  the 
Society  of  Friends.  "The  Period  of  Quakerism,"  by 
John  M.  Fry,  "The  Beginnings  of  Quakerism,"  by 
William  Charles  Braithwaite,  are  also  important.  T. 
Edmond  Harvey,  one  of  the  well  known  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  has  contributed  a  book, 
"The  Rise  of  the  Quakers;"  not  only  suggestive  of 
his  profound  knowledge  of  the  subject,  but  of  the  valuable 
philanthropic  work  he  leads  and  is  interested  in,  in  London. 

Other  books  on  Quakerism  by  Quakers  or  their  descend- 
ants are,  "The  Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts,"  by  Hal- 
lowell,  and  "The  Pioneer  Quaker."    Equally  valuable  is 


THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


623 


the  "Life  of  Mary  Dyer,"  by  Horatio  Rogers,  associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island,  a  lineal 
descendant.  "The  Quaker,  a  Study  in  Costume,"  by  Amelia 
Mott  Gummere,  is  an  illuminating  treatise  on  the  evolution 
of  the  Quaker  garments.  She  is  also  the  author  of  "Witch- 
craft and  Quakerism,"  etc.,  while  "The  Quaker  Post  Bag," 
by  Mrs.  Godfrey  Locker  Lampson,  is  a  collection  of  letters 
written  by  Friends,  among  them  William  Penn,  which 
throw  valuable  sidelights  on  the  history  of  the  times. 

Other  well  known  and  distinguished  authors  among 
Friends  are:  Dr.  Isaac  Sharpless,  President  of  Haverford 
College,  author  of  "History  of  Quaker  Government  in  Penn- 
sylvania," "Two  Centuries  of  Pennsylvania'  History,' 
Quakerism  and  Politics,"  and  various  text-books  on  astron- 
omy, etc.  Elizabeth  Braithwaite  Emmott,  an  English 
author,  has  written  a  most  valuable  book  entitled,  "The 
Story  of  Quakerism." 

Friends,  as  a  rule,  have  not  produced  much  fiction,  but  in 
"The  Quaker  Cross,"  a  story  of  the  old  Bowne  house,  Cor- 
nelia Mitchell  Parsons  has  written  a  most  interesting  his- 
torical novel  about  this  romantic  region,  enriched  by  Quaker 
memories. 

The  literary  work  of  Augustine  Jones,  A.  B.,  A.  M., 
LL.  B.,  has  left  a  strong  impression  on  his  time.  For  many 
years  he  was  the  head  of  the  Friends  School  of  Providence. 
R.  I.  It  was  this  Friend  who  was  selected  by  John  G. 
Whittier  to  represent  the  Society  in  a  series  of  discourses  in 
the  Universal  church  in  Boston.  He  has  written  books  and 
many  papers,  among  them  the  "Life  of  Thomas  Dudley," 
second  governor  of  Massachusetts.   The  ripe  scholarship  and 


624        THE  QUAKER  IN  LITERATURE 


literary  tastes  of  Joseph  Swain,  LL.  D.,  President  of 
Swarthmore  College,  are  well  known. 

In  modern  times  many  literary  men  of  the  nation  have 
been  Quakers  or  able  to  trace  their  ancestry  to  a  Quaker  fire- 
side. In  the  19th  century,  the  names  of  Neal  Dow,  Dr. 
Benjamin  F.  Trueblood  are  familiar;  and  among  scholars, 
Thomas  Chase,  the  Greek  scholar  and  translator  of  the 
Bible,  Pliny,  his  brother,  ripe  in  scholarship;  Goold  Brown 
attained  more  than  national  fame,  and  in  the  sciences  we  re- 
call the  names  of  Cope,  Maria  Mitchell,  and  Dr.  J.  B. 
Holder,  the  friend  of  Agassiz,  author  of  "Fauna  Americana," 
"Along  the  Florida  Reef,"  "The  Right  Whale;"  with  Sir 
John  Richardson,  "The  Museum  of  Natural  History,"  and 
with  J.  G.  Wood,  The  "American  Fauna"  of  his  "Natural 
History."  Among  the  Free  Quakers  General  Nathaniel 
Green  ranked  with  the  leaders,  while  Moses  Brown  was  as 
great  in  philanthropy  and  the  arts  of  peace. 


ao\  h().]H'Jst/:ad 

Hampton  Fallfi,  W/icrc  Wliillicr  Died 
F/NEXDSt  MEF/I         AT  \F\\  I'Oh'T 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

QUAKER  ACTIVITIES. 

The  rigid  rules  of  the  Quakers,  insisting  upon  purity  and 
spirituality,  often  produced  something  very  near  moral  per- 
fection. The  layman,  knowing  Quakers  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  will  recall  men  and  women  who  were  often  "saints" 
in  all  the  term  implies.  There  was  nothing  remarkable 
about  this,  as  these  Friends  believed  that  they  lived  with 
God,  that  they  were  in  mental  and  spiritual  touch  with 
Him;  that  if  they  sat  silent,  pure  of  heart,  receptive,  God 
the  Father  would  illumine  their  hearts,  minds  and  souls,  and 
inspire  them,  tell  them  what  to  do.  It  was  all  very  simple 
to  the  Quaker.  There  was  nothing  miraculous  or  extraord- 
inary about  it.  The  wireless  operator  on  a  certain  ship  can- 
not communicate  with  that  of  another  unless  the  instruments 
are  in  hannony  or  in  tune.  The  Quakers  believed  that  a 
man  must  be  attuned  to  the  Infinite,  pure,  sweet,  clean,  hum- 
ble and  righteous  to  be  in  spiritual  accord  with  God.  Hence 
a  minister,  totally  unprepared,  took  his  seat  in  the  meeting 
on  the  First  Day  of  the  week,  knowing  that  he  had  com- 
ported himself  righteously.  When  such  a  man  or  woman 
rose  and  preached  an  effective,  often  brilliant  and  eloquent 
sermon,  having  never  thought  of  it  before,  he  was  positive 
that  God  was  speaking  through  him,  or  had  empowered  him 
to  speak.  Sainte  Beuve,  in  his  "Port  Royal,"  describes  this 
well.  "Such  souls,"  he  says,  "arrive  at  a  certain  fixed  and 
invincible  state ;  a  state  which  is  genuinely  heroic,  and  from 
out  of  which  the  greatest  deeds  are  performed.  They  have 
an  inner  state  which  before  all  things  is  one  of  love  and 
40 


628 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


ica  in  this  question  of  negro  slavery  alone  could  be  collected 
or  assembled  into  one  volume,  it  would  serve  as  an  answer 
to  every  critic  of  these  people  from  1650  to  this  date. 

In  the  old  days,  the  Quakers  controlled  Rhode  Island. 
Their  Governors  Wanton  and  others  carried  on  the  gov- 
ernment without  suspicion,  and  rarely  have  charges  been 
made  against  a  Quaker  official  from  then  until  now,  from 
the  governor  to  an  Indian  agent,  which  could  be  substan- 
tiated. Quakers  everywhere  take  an  active  participation  in 
politics.  There  are  now  nine  members  of  Parliament  who 
are  Quakers.  The  Mayor  of  Doncaster,  James  B.  Clark,  is 
a  Quaker.  He  was  highly  regarded  by  King  Edward, 
though  when  the  King  invited  him  to  the  royal  box  at  the 
races,  he  replied,  that  while  he  appreciated  the  distinguished 
honor,  he  could  not  consistently  break  through  the  rule  of 
the  Society  of  Friends.  The  Mayor  regretted  that  he  was 
forced  to  decline  the  King's  invitation,  but  the  latter  appre- 
ciated the  reason,  and  also  knew  that  the  Quaker  mayor  was 
a  man  of  the  highest  principle  and  one  of  the  greatest  phi- 
lanthropists in  Great  Britain. 

The  Quakers  have  always  been  leaders  in  the  great  phi- 
lanthropies. Among  the  first  to  suggest  fundamental  re- 
forms, with  a  profound  prescience,  they  have  devoted  them- 
selves to  these  activities  in  every  land,  whether  it  be  char- 
ity or  education,  or  the  general  uplift.  In  the  missionary 
field,  the  Friends  have  always  been  among  the  first  to  move 
in  foreign  lands,  and  the  last  to  leave.  The  work  of  Eliza- 
beth Fry  has  been  referred  to,  and  her  prototype  is  found 
in  hundreds  of  Quakers,  whose  good  works  have  not  been 
known.  The  travels  of  Friends,  visiting  the  various  Yearly 
Meetings,  were,  so  far  as  the  general  public  was  concerned. 


THE  LYW  m/j/:t/\(;  //(>r.s7-; 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


629 


even  among  Quakers,  mere  visitations  to  the  meetings, 
but  to  those  who  knew,  these  trips  were  often  of  the  most 
complicated  character,  and  embraced  a  variety  of  activities 
of  profound  importance  to  the  various  communities.  When 
Elizabeth  Comstock  went  to  Washington  in  the  sixties  to 
visit  my  grandparents,  then  members  of  the  Baltimore  Yearly 
Meeting,  she  insisted  upon  visiting  all  the  penal  and  cor- 
rective institutions,  and  I  well  remember,  as  I  often  accom- 
panied her  as  an  escort,  the  influence  the  address  of  this 
sweet-faced  woman  had  upon  the  convicts  of  the  great  Mary- 
land penitentiary.  Similar  work  was  done  by  Caroline  Tal- 
bot, Eli  and  Sybil  Jones  and  all  the  prominent  ministers  of 
the  age  who  passed  through  the  Capital.  In  a  sense  the  ma- 
jority of  ministers  of  the  Friends  were  missionaries.  They 
visited  private  houses,  great  prisons,  Indians  or  the  native 
tribes  of  all  countries.  One  of  Penn's  reasons  for  founding 
Pennsylvania  was  the  desire  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
Indians. 

American  Friends  early  established  many  missions  in  for- 
eign lands.  Mary  Fisher  visited  the  Sultan  Mahomet  IV  in 
1660.  The  great  undenominational  societies,  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  the  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  were  aided  materially  by  Quakers;  while 
Daniel  Wheeler,  James  Backhouse,  Stephen  Grellet,  Joseph 
John  Gurney  and  many  more  carried  the  message  of  Friends 
about  the  world.  Hannah  Kilbane  visited  Africa,  or  Sierra 
Leone,  in  1817,  and  with  Ann  Thompson  she  taught  the 
ignorant  ex-slaves  who  founded  this  colony.  Into  India, 
China,  and  other  lands  the  Quakers  have  carried  their  activ- 
ities, and  the  Friends  Foreign  Missionary  Association  of 
England  has  performed  yeomen's  service  in  India  and  Mada- 


630  QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


gascar.  In  Syria  important  work  has  been  done  by  Ellen 
Clara  Miller  of  London,  and  by  Eli  and  Sybil  Jones  of  New 
England.  The  Quakers  are  now  conducting  many  missions 
in  China,  and  have  always  constantly  fought  the  opium  in- 
dustry. 

It  is  not  my  object  to  give  an  elaborate  account  of  this 
work,  but  merely  to  suggest  it,  and  to  point  out  the  fact  that 
in  the  great  fields  of  human  endeavor  where  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual uplift  has  been  the  object,  the  Quakers  have  been 
in  the  front  rank,  giving  their  lives,  their  money  and  their 
encouragement. 

The  story  of  the  Quakers  and  their  attempt  to  set  the 
highest  possible  example  of  Christianity  is  a  remarkable  one, 
and  that  it  has  accomplished  more  than  was  possibly  ex- 
pected, will  perhaps  be  the  concensus  of  opinion  of  those 
best  fitted  to  judge.  That  the  Quakers  arrested  the  attention 
of  the  world  cannot  be  denied.  The  very  nature  of  their 
claims,  their  absolute  unselfishness,  their  modesty,  bravery 
under  torture,  their  supreme  courage,  made  an  impression 
upon  their  most  virulent  enemies,  and  did  much  toward 
arresting  the  downward  tendency  of  morals  in  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

As  to  the  future  of  Quakerism  no  one  can  tell ;  but  as  one 
by  one,  the  great  claims  of  the  Quakers  made  in  the  period 
between  1650  and  1700  have  been  allowed,  the  Quakers  of 
to-day  can  well  say  that  their  message  to  the  world  still 
stands  triumphant;  and  that  history  has  borne  out  the  justice 
of  their  early  demands,  and  the  futility  of  opposition.  It 
matters  little  whether  the  Quakers  increase  or  diminish  in 
numbers;  the  great  reforms  they  advocated  have  either  been 
accomplished  or  so  emphatically  adopted  by  the  world,  that 


r 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


631 


there  is  no  mistaking  the  verdict.  The  simple  life,  the  crime 
of  war.  the  suppression  of  slavery,  absolute  honesty  in  busi- 
ness, in  politics,  in  international  affairs,  justice,  equal  rights, 
suffrage  for  women,  rights  of  free  conscience,  temperance, 
morality  and  perfect  conduct  every  day,  these  and  many 
more  were  the  corner  stones  of  the  Quaker  propaganda;  and 
to-day  there  is  not  a  Chriistian  church  which  does  not  advo- 
cate them,  which  does  not  recognize  that  the  once  despised 
Quaker  was  a  prophet  in  his  day,  and  a  true  one.  Hence,  it 
matters  little  whether  the  Friends  increase  or  merely  hold 
their  own.  The  latter  they  are  doing,  and  there  is  ever\- 
reason  to  believe  that  there  has  begun  a  rivival  of  interest  in 
this  remarkable  sect,  which  will  add  materially  to  its  strength 
and  numbers. 

The  London  Yearly  Meeting  is  not  decreasing,  and  if  the 
Friends  proselyted  after  the  custom  of  certain  other  sects, 
their  growth  would  be  large  :  but  members  are  born  into  the 
Friends  Society,  and  it  is  rarely  that  any  one  is  urged  to  join 
them,  at  least  in  the  East,  as  in  other  orthodox  and  denom- 
inational bodies.  The  Friends  of  Australia  belong  to  the 
London  Meeting.  Friends  are  represented  in  Norway  and  in 
Denmark,  and  there  has  been  in  the  twentieth  centur}-  a 
strong  spiritual  interest  in  Holland.  Friends  are  represented 
in  the  south  of  France  and  in  Gennany  (Minden),  while 
meetings  are  held  at  all  the  missionar}*  stations  from  India 
Ceylon,  Madagagscar,  China,  the  Holy  Land  and  other 
countries.  The  Friends  are  stronger  in  .\merica  than  else- 
where, and  the  meetings,  especially  in  the  West,  are  increas- 
ing, there  being  about  sixteen  yearly  meetings  in  Canada  and 
the  United  States.  We  have  seen  how  the  Quakers  gradu- 
ally went  West.    In  1812  the  Ohio  Yearly  Meeting  was 


632  QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


formed,  and  in  1821  the  Indiana  Yearly  Meeting — from 
Ohio,  then  the  Western  Yearly  Meeting  in  1858,  Iowa 
Yearly  Meeting  in  i860,  Kansas  Yearly  Meeting  in  1872, 
Wilmington  Yearly  Meeting  in  1892.  The  Iowa  Quakers 
increased  so  rapidly  that  in  1893  the  Oregon  Yearly  Meet- 
ing was  set  off,  in  1895  the  California  Yearly  Meeting,  and 
in  1898  the  Nebraska  Yearly  Meeting,  while  the  Canada 
Yearly  Meeting  was  set  off  from  New  York  in  1867. 

At  present  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  thousand  Orthodox  Friends  in  England  and 
America,  or  if  the  Hicksites,  Wilburites  are  included,  one 


hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 

The  London  Orthodox  Meeting  includes.  .  .  18,700 

The  Dublin  Yearly  Meeting  includes   2,500 

Foreign  Members    2,800 

Europeans   300 

American  Yearly  Meetings   95,000 

Foreign  American  Meetings   3?700 


123,500 

It  is  not  a  question  of  numbers  with  the  Friends  There  was 
but  one  Christian  when  Christ  began  His  work,  yet  His  mes- 
sage arrested  the  attention  of  the  world  of  His  day.  When 
George  Fox  became  a  seventeenth  century  disciple,  his  clar- 
ion notes  for  reform  aroused  the  world  and  established  a 
new  era  of  reform  and  spiritual  purity. 

Elizabeth  Braithwaite  Emmot,  in  her  story  of  '"'Quaker- 
ism," says:  "Numbers  are  not,  however,  the  only  sign  of 
progress,  nor  the  best  test  of  spiritual  life.  The  Quaker 
message  which  binds  together  in  one  fellowship  all  these 


i 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES  633 


widely  separated  Friends  the  world  over,  is  a  very  living 
and  powerful  one.  It  is  the  same  message  that  was  preached 
by  George  Fox,  and  the  early  Friends." 

Mention  of  Quaker  activities  would  not  be  complete  with- 
out reference  to  some  of  the  notable  figures  of  yesterday  and 
to-day. 

Among  the  notable  American  Quakers  of  distinguished 
ancestry,  was  Charles  F.  Coffin,  business  man  and  philanthro- 
pist. He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Tristram  Coffin  of  Bux- 
ton, Devonshire,  son  of  Nicholas  Coffin,  who  came  to  Amer- 
ica in  1642,  moving  to  Nantucket  in  1659.  The  family  is 
one  of  the  most  ancient  in  English  and  Norman  history,  and 
has  given  England  some  of  its  most  notable  men  in  the  Eng- 
lish nobility,  army,  navy,  diplomatic  service  and  business. 
Sir  Richard  Coffin,  Knight,  was  given  the  ancient  estate 
"Portledge,"  by  William  the  Conqueror  for  valuable  ser- 
vices. This  was  in  the  parish  of  Alwington,  near  Bideford, 
England,  in  the  vicinity  of  Devon.  Admiral  Henry  E. 
Coffin  and  Admiral  Sir  Isaac  Coffin  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  service  of  their  country.  A  notable  and  leading  figure 
in  the  Coffin  family  to-day  is  Charles  Albert  Coffin  of  New 
York,  president  of  the  General  Electric  Company,  a  de- 
scendant of  a  long  line  of  Quakers.  His  strong  individual- 
'ity  has  made  itself  felt  in  every  state  in  the  Union  as  a  pub- 
lic benefactor,  being  one  of  those  who  aided  in  the  opening 
up  of  the  many  benefits  of  electricity  to  the  world.  Charles 
Albert  Coffin  is  a  nephew  of  Charles  F.  Coffin  and  son  of 
Albert  Coffin. 

Among  the  Friends  who  have  distinguished  themselves  in 
America  are  John  Bartram,  the  American  botanist,  Whittier, 
the  poet.  Bayard  Taylor,  John  Dickinson,  author  of  the 


634  QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


'Tarmer's  Letters"  during  the  Revolution.  Two  Quakers 
— Greene  and  Mufflin — became  not  only  Free  Qua- 
kers, but  generals  in  the  Revolution.  Ezra  Cor- 
nell, who  founded  the  great  university  which  bears 
his  name,  was  a  Quaker.  Benjamin  West,  who  paint- 
ed Penn's  Treaty  with  the  Indians,  included  in  his 
historic  work  a  number  of  portraits,  I  am  informed 
by  Mr.  Horace  I.  Smith,  a  descendant  of  Penn's  secretary, 
William  Logan.  The  latter  is  shown  in  the  best-known 
Penn  painting  holding  a  deed  next  to  Penn.  The  next 
figure  is  that  of  Thomas  Loyd.  The  figure  stand- 
ing between  Penn  and  Logan  is  Thomas  Story,  and 
the  person  between  Logan  and  Loyd  is  the  father  of  the 
artist.  The  young  man  leaning  on  a  trunk  is  West  himself, 
and  his  wife  is  distinguished  as  the  squaw.  Mr.  Smith,  who 
is  descended  from  Loyd  and  Logan,  found  the  original  plate 
of  this  picture  in  London,  and  it  is  now  in  Philadelphia. 

In  the  world  of  business  of  the  nineteenth  or  twentieth 
century  few  Quakers  have  made  so  signal  a  success  or  name 
for  themselves  as  Francis  T.  Holder  of  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  a 
linal  descendant  of  the  Quaker  Nantucket  shipbuilder, 
Daniel  Holder,  1750.  A  birthright  Friend,  he  entered  the 
army  of  the  Union  and  served  through  many  of  its  cam- 
paigns, becoming  a  Free  Quaker,  though  it  is  a  fact  that  he 
was  not  disowned.  He  became  identified  with  the  textile 
fabric  interests  of  America,  and  a  dominant  figure  in  its  pro- 
duction, his  inventive  genius  and  masterly  generalship 
placing  him  at  the  head  of  the  greatest  textile  fabric  business 
in  the  world,  in  Yonkers,  New  York,  Alexander  Smith  & 
Sons.  This  extraordinary  business  employs  nearly  six  thou- 
sand persons  and  is  the  means  of  support  of  twenty-five 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


635 


thousand  individuals.  Mr.  Holder  contributed  to  the 
Friends'  interests  in  California  and  Massachusetts,  and  gave 
to  the  Historical  Society  of  Clinton,  Massachusetts,  a  fine 
building,  the  "Holder  Memorial,"  in  which  a  room  is  de- 
voted to  Quaker  historical  data  relating  to  the  Holder  fam- 
ily from  the  time  of  Christopher  down. 

The  Quakers  were  not  unmindful  of  the  importance  of 
places  for  worship,  and  the  old  Quaker  meeting-houses  in 
this  country  and  England  are  among  the  milestones  of  his- 
tory. 

The  quaint  Byberry,  Pennsylvania,  meeting-house  is  well 
described  in  the  poem  of  Fanny  Pierson  in  the  beautiful 
little  volume  of  '*01d  Friends  Meeting  Houses,"  by  John 
Russell  Hayes. 

Westchester,  with  its  twin  Greek  porches,  one  for  men 
and  the  other  for  women,  the  fine  old  Arch  Street  meeting- 
house in  Philadelphia,  the  more  pretentious  Race  Street 
building,  with  its  iron  fence  and  strict  colonial  design;  the 
severe,  but  beautiful.  Green  Street  Philadelphia  meeting- 
house, with  its  white  window-frames  and  shutters,  its  forbid- 
ding brick  wall  and  iron  gate  shutting  out  innovations,  all 
form  quaint,  but  loving  pictures  to  the  stroller.  The  Ches- 
terfield meeting-house  stands  in  a  beautiful  park.  An  old- 
•  fashioned  shingled  meeting-house  can  be  seen  at  old  West- 
bury,  Long  Island,  where  the  descendants  of  many  of  the 
early  Friends  still  live. 

One  of  the  finest  specimens  of  colonial  style  of  meeting- 
house is  seen  at  Wilmington,  Delaware.  It  is  a  plain  brick 
building,  with  sharp,  sloping  roof,  with  great  eaves,  a  pic- 
ture in  beautiful  simplicity,  surrounded  by  a  brick  wall  over 
which  gray  elms  cast  their  grateful  shade.   At  New  Garden, 


636 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


Pennsylvania,  Morristown,  New  Jersey  and  Camden,  are 
quaint  and  characteristic  meeting-houses,  while  at  Reading, 
Pennsylvania,  may  be  seen  the  old  log  cabin  used  in  the 
primitive  days.  A  striking  contrast  to  others  is  the  Girard 
Avenue  meeting-house  in  Philadelphia,  pretentious,  aristo- 
cratic, severe  and  elegant. 

In  the  towns  of  Darby  and  Merion  are  interesting  houses, 
while  that  of  Hopewell,  Virginia,  is  like  a  fort  with  its  solid 
stone  first  and  second  story.  In  many  meeting-houses  the 
graveyard  is  of  peculiar  interest;  to  me,  that  of  Lynn,  where 
my  ancestors  lie,  and  at  Frenchay,  England,  where  a  few 
flat  stones  lie  prone  on  the  sod,  where  Christopher  Holder 
lies  and  George  Fox  often  preached.  The  meeting-houses 
were  often  large  and  pretentious,  even  in  country  places, 
like  the  public  buildings  of  Texas,  or  the  schools  of  Cali- 
fornia. Such  is  the  Sandy  Hill  meeting-house,  Maryland, 
and  Norristown,  Pennsylvania,  the  latter  being  of  the  fine 
old  Quaker  type  of  colonial  days,  with  its  duplicate  porches 
as  plain  as  they  could  be  made. 

They  were  not  all  pretentious,  as  at  Hockessin  the  meet- 
ing-house was  small  and  plain.  So  at  Maple  Grove,  Indi- 
ana, or  at  Nine  Partners  in  New  York,  one  of  the  quaintest 
of  all  the  old  houses,  with  the  roof  coming  down  well  over 
the  upper  windows,  and  the  two  doors  innocent  of  porches. 
A  delightful  picture  among  the  elms  is  made  by  the  Piles- 
grove,  New  Jersey,  meeting-house,  with  its  many  white 
doors  and  windows,  belonging  to  a  type  of  long,  large  stone 
houses  extremely  pretentious,  yet  simple.  Such  is  the  meet- 
ing-house at  Haddenfield,  New  Jersey,  and  London  Grove, 
Pennsylvania,  both  surrounded  by  large  trees  and  having 
quaint  porches.    Other  American  meeting-houses  of  great 


r 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


637 


interest  are  those  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  Salem  and 
Lynn,  Massachusetts;  Providence,  Rhode  Island;  New 
York,  Salem,  New  Jersey;  Fallowfield  and  Roman ville, 
Pennsylvania;  Trenton,  New  Jersey;  Germantown,  Penn- 
sylvania; and  Coldstream,  Ontario,  Canada. 

Modern  meeting-houses  may  be  seen  in  a  fine  Grecian 
building  in  South  Carolina  and  in  Boston.  The  latter  calls 
to  mind  the  fact  that  for  many  years  the  Monthly  Meeting 
of  Lynn  objected  to  the  forming  of  a  meeting  in  the  growing 
town  of  Boston.  In  the  records  of  the  Lynn  meeting  I  find 
that  my  great  grandfather,  Richard  Holder,  was  sent  on  a 
mission  to  discourage  this  movement.  The  minute  is  as  fol- 
lows:— 1803-1  mo.  "The  subject  relating  to  Friends  in 
Boston  being  again  before  this  meeting,  and  as  it  appears  by 
information  given  this  meeting,  that  Friends  there  are  in  the 
practice  of  holding  and  have  set  up  and  do  hold  a  meeting, 
we  do  hereby  appoint  Richard  Holder  to  labor  with  these 
Friends  w^ho  do  thus  contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  Monthly 
Meeting,  etc."  The  objection,  doubtless,  was  that  there 
were  not  enough  Friends  in  Boston  at  the  time  to  justify  it. 

The  fine  meeting-house  of  Friends  at  Devonshire  House, 
London,  has  been  described;  also  Westminster  Meeting, 
with  its  array  of  rooms.  The  average  meeting-house  in  Eng- 
land differs  very  much  from  those  of  America,  if  we  may 
except  Jordans,  a  simple  type  evidently  copied  in  the  colo- 
nies. One  of  the  most  artistic  and  quaint  meeting-houses  I 
saw  in  England  is  that  at  Frenchay,  where  Christopher 
Holder  and  Josiah  Cole  met  and  the  former  lies  buried. 
Much  like  the  Frenchay  meeting-house  is  the  one  at  Milver- 
ton,  Somerset,  being  partly  surrounded  by  a  high  stone  wall 
after  the  ancient  fashion.    This  meeting-house  was  built  in 


638  QUAKER  ACTI\  ITIES 


the  seventeenth  century.  Quaint  and  curious  is  the  Chelt- 
amham  meeting-house  of  about  the  same  age;  the  prim  up- 
and-down  building,  with  two  large  windows  and  simple 
door,  connected  with  a  longer  building  against  which  plants 
were  trained  in  conventional  designs.  Near  it  were  colleges 
for  the  poor.  The  Worcester,  England,  meeting-house,  built 
in  1700,  was  a  strange,  plain  building,  with  four  large  win- 
dows, and  what  appeared  to  be  a  small  house  forming  the 
entrance.  The  entire  building  seemed  to  be  attached  to  a 
house.  A  place  of  meeting  in  Farmingdon,  Berkshire,  has 
the  appearance  of  a  pseudo  pyramid  set  on  a  stone  parallel- 
ogram, with  a  window  on  each  side.  Surrounding  it  is  a 
stone  wall  about  seven  feet  in  height.    It  is  still  used. 

In  America  there  was  more  or  less  similarity  of  architec- 
ture in  the  meeting-houses;  but  these  old  English  buildings 
exhibited  an  extraordinary  variety.  Hereford  in  1823  had 
the  usual  stone  wall,  but  was  a  very  tall  stone  building  of 
two  stories,  the  roof  being  very  small,  with  no  eaves.  That 
of  Tewkesbury,  Gloucester,  was  still  more  remarkable;  a 
long,  low  building  of  stone,  with  low  roof  and  five  enor- 
mous arched  windows,  the  middle  one  cut  in  two  to  form  a 
door.  In  the  ends  were  two  equally  large  windows,  reach- 
ing nearly  from  the  ground  to  the  roof.  Nearly  all  these 
meeting-houses,  which  were  drawn  by  Thomas  Pole,*  dated 
from  the  seventeenth  century.  The  Leominster  meeting- 
house at  Herefordshire  was  built  in  1680.  It  had  an  ample 
burial  ground,  and  was  made  up  of  two  separate  stone, 

*The  cuts  of  old  English  meeting  houses  are  from  the  book  of 
Edmund  Tolson  Wedmore,  Esq.,  of  Bristol,  England,  referred  to  in 
the  preface.  The  original  drawings  by  Dr.  Pole  are  owned  by  him, 
and  were  loaned  to  the  author  of  the  present  work. 


r 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES  639 


pyramid-like  buildings,  shut  in  from  the  street  by  a  wall, 
while  a  lower  wall  separated  them  from  the  graveyard.  The 
Birmingham  meeting-house,  destroyed  in  1 703,  had  a  higher 
roof,  but  with  the  tall  arched  windows  previously  noticed. 

At  Exeter  the  very  limit  of  severity  is  seen  in  a  perfectly 
square  building,  built  in  1692,  and  with  ample  grounds.  All 
the  meeting-houses  are  of  stone,  even  the  fences;  in  fact  I 
do  not  recall  seeing  a  wooden  dwelling  in  England.  This 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  no  available  wood  on  this 
side  of  Norway,  and  the  very  sensible  plan  has  been  adopted 
of  making  buildings  durable;  hence  all  the  villages,  cities 
and  farms  have  the  appearance  of  age,  and  are  old.  To  the 
American  the  effect  is  dispiriting,  cold,  gloomy,  and  the  im- 
pression is  of  dampness  and  discomfort,  while  the  English- 
man gazes  with  amazement  at  our  ephemeral  wooden  houses, 
which  sooner  or  later  wear  out  or  burn  down. 

In  1 870  a  small  Friends  Meeting  was  organized  in  Wash- 
ington, which  gradually  increased  in  size.  Among  the  early 
members  were  John  C.  and  Hannah  G.  Gove,  James  E.  and 
Phoebe  Underbill,  Johnathan  Dennis,  Lawrence  H.  Hop- 
kins, Emily  N.  Hopkins,  Frank  E.  Hopkins,  Florence  Hop- 
kins, Emily  E.  Hopkins,  Clayton  Balderston,  Nathan  C. 
Paige,  Thomas  Talbot,  Sena  Spencer,  William  Hoge, 
•Daniel  Breed,  Wilhelmina  Breed,  William  Robinson,  Amy 
Boune  and  Elida  Gifford.  The  meeting-house  at  Baltimore 
is  interesting  and  suggests  many  names  prominent  in  the 
history  of  modern  Quakerism,  of  which  that  of  Dr.  J.  C. 
Thomas  is  conspicuous.  Other  names  identified  with  Balti- 
more are  Frances  T.  King,  James  Carey,  John  Scott,  John 
B.  Crenshaw,  Richard  M.  Janney  and  Jesse  Tyson ;  and  you 
might  have  met  at  the  Yearly  Meeting,  Mrs.  Samuel  Boyce, 


640  QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


John  Page,  William  C.  Tabor,  Joseph  Cartland,  from  New 
England;  Jonathan  De  Vol,  William  H.  Case,  Benjamin 
Talham,  Robert  Lindley  Murray,  Samuel  Heaton  and  Jesse 
P.  Haines  from  New  York.  Chas.  F.  Coffin,  Levi  Jessop, 
Francis  W.  Thomas,  Isaac  P.  Evans,  Daniel  Hill,  Barnabas 
C.  Hobbs,  Dr.  Dougan  Clark,  Allen  Jay,  Allan  N.  Tomlin- 
son  and  many  more  whose  well  known  names  should 
be  mentioned  in  any  complete  list  of  active  and  influential 
Friends  during  the  past  fifty  years. 

Quakerism  to-day  over  the  entire  country  is  very  differ- 
ent from  what  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  not  the  province 
of  the  present  work  to  analyze  the  changes  and  evolution  in 
the  body  of  Friends,  but  in  1865  to  1870  in  New  England 
the  Orthodox  Friends  still  retained  their  primitive  sim- 
plicity. In  1867-8  the  author  was  a  student  at  the  Friends 
School  of  Providence,  where,  among  other  things,  music  was 
tabooed.  The  school  was  practically  the  same  as  when  my 
parents  and  grandparents  attended  it,  but  a  change  was  com- 
ing. The  Western  Friends  had  long  been  more  liberal,  or 
to  the  Eastern  Friends,  more  like  Methodists,  and  this  in- 
creased until  Friends'  meetings  had  "revivals"  and  gradu- 
ally came  to  resemble  other  denominations  in  various  ways. 
Many  Friends  still  remain  as  they  were  in  i860.  As  an 
illustration,  there  are  two  meetings  in  Pasadena,  California; 
one  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  a  Methodist  church; 
the  other  is  a  typical  Friends  meeting,  a  fac-simile  of  the 
Lynn  Meeting  as  I  knew  it  in  the  sixties.  To-day  the  Lynn 
Meeting  has  a  pastor,  singing  and  music,  and  has  assumed 
the  earmarks  of  modern  times.  This  is  true  over  a  large 
section  of  the  country,  and  can  doubtless  be  traced  to  the 
coming  of  Joseph  John  Gurney,  who  sowed  the  seed  by 


QUAKER  ACTIVITIES 


641 


using  the  Bible  in  meeting.  The  author  has  often  referred 
to  non-essentials  in  Quakerism.  They  are  doubtless  found 
in  all  sects  and  denominations,  and  the  tendency  of  the  day 
is  to  simplify  religion,  make  it  more  practical,  attractive  and 
understandable.  Despite  the  many  changes  in  Quakerism, 
its  divisions  and  separations,  it  still — Orthodox,  Hicksite, 
Gurneyite,  Wilburite — ^presents  a  solid  front  of  exalted 
morality,  which  can  but  challenge  the  admiration  of  the 
world. 

I  am  reminded  of  the  lines  of  John  Morley  in  his  Life  of 
Oliver  Cromwell:  "Quakerism  was  undergoing  many 
changes  and  developments,  but  in  all  of  them  it  has  been 
the  most  devout  of  all  endeavors  to  turn  Christianity  into 
the  religion  of  Christ." 

FINIS 


41 


APPENDICES 


APPENDICES. 


EARLY  QUAKER  REPLIES  AND  TRACTS 


Christopher  Holder's  Reply  to  Nathaniel  Morton 
In  Answer  to  Attacks  upon  Them.    Illustrating  the  Quaint 
Style  of  the  Early  Quakers 

One  of  the  methods  employed  by  the  early  Quakers  of  the 
George  Fox  period  in  reply  to  the  attacks  of  their  enemies, 
was  the  issuing  of  pamphlets  which  were  scattered  broadcast 
in  the  camps,  haunts  and  churches  of  the  enemy.  As  an 
illustration  of  these  seventeenth-century  tracts,  I  have 
selected  one  of  the  rarest,  by  Christopher  Holder,  who  with 
John  Copeland  founded  the  first  Quaker  meeting  in  Amer- 
ica, at  Sandwich.  So  far  as  known,  there  are  but  two  copies 
of  this  quaint  document.  I  found  one  in  the  Library  of  the 
British  Museum;  the  other  is  in  the  Friends  Library  in 
Devonshire  House,  London.  It  is  believed  that  no  American 
library  possesses  copies.  I  also  have  Anthony  Holder's 
pamphlet,  which  is  addressed  to  two  "priests,"  Henry  Hean 
of  Ollveston,  and  William  Wilton  of  Elburton  Towers,  near 
Bristol, — a  stronghold  of  the  Holder  family,  even  to-day. 
The  paper  of  Christopher  Holder  is  addressed  to  Nathaniel 
Morton  of  Boston,  who  was  a  leader  in  the  attacks  against 
the  Quakers,  who  among  others  replied  to  the  Holder  paper : 


"The  Faith  And  Testimony  Of  The  Martyrs  and  suffering 
servants  of  Jesus  Christ  persecuted  in  New  England  vindi- 


646 


APPENDICES 


cated,  against  the  lyes  and  slanders  cast  on  them  by  Nathan- 
iel Morton  in  his  book  entitled  "New  England's  Memorial.'* 
Written  for  the  sake  of  the  honest  hearted,  by  a  servant 
of  the  living  God,  who  is  a  witness  of  the  Resurrection  of 
the  Christ  Jesus,  and  of  his  appearance  the  second  time 
without  sin  unto  Salvation. 

Christopher  Holder.* 

A  faithful  witness  will  not  lye,  but  a  false  record  will 
speak  lyes,  Prov.  14.5,  they  bend  their  tongues  like  their 
bows  for  lies.  But  they  have  no  courage  for  truth  upon  the 
Earth;  for  they  proceed  from  evil  to  worse,  and  they  have 
not  known  me,  saith  the  Lord,  Jer.  9 13. 


There  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun  as  it  hath  been  always, 
so  it  is  now,  he  that  is  born  after  the  flesh  persecuteth  him 
that  is  born  after  the  Spirit,  the  fruits  of  which  we  have 
found  plentifully  in  New  England,  the  beast  and  false 
prophet  hath  joyned  together  to  war  with  the  Lamb  and  his 
followers,  and  the  Dragon  hath  opened  his  mouth  wide  to 
swallow  up  the  woman  that  is  coming  up  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness, through  whom  the  man  child  shall  be  brought  forth 
to  rule  the  Nations  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

In  the  power  of  which  Dragon  I  have  found  one  Nathan- 
iel Morton,  as  by  the  language  which  proceedeth  out  of  his 
mouth  doth  plainly  appear,  in  a  book  tituled  "New  Eng- 
land's Memorial,"  wherein  he  undertakes  to  write  against 
innocent  harmless  people  whom  God  hath  made  choice  of  to 
bear  witness  to  his  Spirit,  and  to  leave  their  native  Country, 
and  all  that  was  dear  and  near  to  them  therein,  to  go  into 


APPENDICES 


647 


that  part  of  the  world  called  New  England,  to  declare  the 
glad  tidings  of  salvation,  and  the  way  to  life  everlasting  to 
all  people,  whom  this  man  reproaches,  as  a  pernetious  sect 
of  Quakers,  with  many  other  malitious  and  unsavory  expres- 
sions, to  which  I  say  the  Lord  rebuke  him,  and  make  his 
folly  manifest  unto  all  men,  and  wipe  off  the  reproaches  and 
slanders,  which  he  hath  cast  upon  his  people,  and  open  the 
eyes  of  the  Sons  of  men  that  they  may  discern  between  truth 
and  errour,  light  and  darkness,  Christ  and  Antichrist,  that 
they  may  not  joyn  with  the  Dragon  and  his  army  against 
the  Lamb  and  his  Army. 

And  now  Nathaniel  I  shall  come  to  speak  something 
briefly  unto  what  thou  has  laid  down  to  be  their  corrupt  and 
damnable  doctrines,  which  they  have  sowed  among  you,  in 
every  Town  of  each  Jurisdiction  as  thou  sayest. 

1 .  That  all  men  ought  to  attend  to  the  light  within  them 
to  be  the  Rule  of  their  lives  and  actions. 

Ans.  Well,  is  this  such  a  corrupt  and  damnable  doctrine, 
to  direct  people  to  attend  unto  Christ,  who  is  the  true  light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  World,  surely, 
if  thou  had  been  in  the  World  in  the  dayes  of  John,  thou 
would  have  called  his  doctrine  pernitious,  corrupt,  and 
damnable,  again  Christ  saith,  I  am  the  light  of  the  World, 
•  he  that  followeth  me,  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall 
have  the  light  of  life,  again,  while  ye  have  the  light  believe 
in  the  light,  that  we  may  be  the  children  of  light,  and  that 
this  light  shineth  in  the  conscience  or  is  within  a  man  mani- 
fest, for  Paul  saith  concerning  the  Gentiles,  that  which  may 
be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them  that  Christ  dwelleth  in 
the  Saints,  again,  know  ye  not  your  own  selves,  how  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  in  you,  except  ye  be  reprobates;  again  the 


648 


APPENDICES 


light  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Christ  hath  shined  in  our 
hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  Knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God,  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  surely  if  thou  had  been  in 
time,  thou  wouldst  have  called  this  also  corrupt  and  damna- 
ble doctrine,  for  by  the  same  Spirit  according  to  the  measure 
thereof  received,  as  these  Scriptures  were  given  forth  from, 
do  we  direct  people  to  the  same  light,  which  the  Scriptures 
speak  of,  that  they  may  come  to  the  same  life  in  Christ,  that 
so  they  may  be  freed  from  condemnation;  for  this  is  the 
Condemnation  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men 
love  darkness  rather  than  light,  so  that  it  is  evident  to  direct 
people  to  believe  in  that  where  with  Christ  hath  enlightened 
them,  is  no  damnable  doctrine,  nor  cause  of  condemnation, 
but  to  lead  people  from  the  light  of  the  glorious  Gospel 
which  shineth  in  their  hearts,  into  outward  observations, 
crying  lo  here,  or  lo  there,  in  this  form,  or  that  ordinance 
out  of  which  God  is  departed,  is  damnable  doctrine,  and  the 
cause  of  condemnation,  among  which  generation  thou  thy 
self  art  found. 

2ly.  Thou  sayest  that  we  said  the  holy  Scriptures  were 
not  for  the  enlightening  of  men,  nor  a  settled  and  permanent 
Rule  of  Life. 

Ans.  What  the  holy  men  of  God  that  gave  forth  the 
Scriptures  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  do  own 
the  Scriptures  to  be  for  that  we  do  own  them  also,  but  that 
any  of  them  have  said,  that  the  Scriptures  are  for  the  en- 
lightening of  Man,  for  a  settled  and  permanent  rule,  of  life 
without  distinction  I  never  read,  but  this  I  have  read,  that 
they  are  able  to  make  wise  unto  Salvation,  through  faith 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness,  thus 


r 


APPENDICES 


649 


we  own  them  to  be,  and  can  witness,  and  set  to  our  seals  to 
the  truth  thereof,  as  by  the  Holy  Ghost  they  are  brought  to 
our  remembrance,  and  is  brought  to  our  understanding,  but 
still  we  say  Christ  is  the  true  light  that  enlighteneth  Man, 
as  it  is  written  in  the  Scriptures,  he  is  given  a  Covenant  to 
the  people,  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles  and  the  glory  of 
the  children  of  Israel;  by  this  Spirit  is  given  for  a  rule  to 
the  children  of  God  to  keep  them  from  the  pollutions  of  the 
the  world,  and  to  lead  them  up  unto  God,  in  whom  is  life 
eternal,  as  saith  Paul,  If  ye  walk  in  the  Spirit,  ye  shall  not 
fulfill  the  works  of  the  flesh ;  and  again,  as  many  as  are  the 
Sons  of  God,  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  again  as 
many  as  walk  according  to  this  rule  peace  be  unto  them,  and 
mercy  upon  the  Israel  of  God,  (this  rule)  this  is  Christ  by 
whom  man  became  a  new  creature,  as  it  is  clear  by  the  fore- 
going words  in  that  Chapter,  and  how  can  you  own  it  to  be 
a  settled  and  permanent  rule,  when  one  of  your  Magistrates 
William  Collier  by  name  said  to  William  Newland,  and 
Ralph  Allen,  that  in  Beza's  translation  there  is  eight  hun- 
dred errours,  in  the  last  translation  three  hundred  errours, 
surely  if  there  be  so  many  errours  in  that  which  ye  call  your 
setied  and  permanent  rule,  you  hath  need  to  have  the  Spirit 
of  Truth  to  show  you  wherein  the  errours  are,  or  else  you 
.  will  soon  e're  from  the  truth,  and  the  rule  of  life  and  salva- 
tion. 

3dly.  Thou  sayest  they  deny  the  man-hood  of  Christ, 
and  afRrm  that  as  a  man  he  is  not  in  heaven. 

Ans.  As  for  the  word  manhood  I  know  not  of  such  a 
word  in  the  Scriptures,  but  if  thou  mean  by  manhood  the 
man  Christ  Jesus,  which  was  conceived  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  womb  of  the  \^irgin  Mary,  who  was  of  the  seed  of 


650 


APPENDICES 


David  according  to  the  flesh,  who  took  on  him  the  seed  of 
Abraham,  who  was  crucified  by  the  Jews,  and  rose  again  the 
third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  then  I  utterly  deny 
what  thou  sayest,  and  do  affirm  that  Jesus  Christ  we  own 
and  no  other,  and  do  verily  believe  through  him,  and  by  him 
to  be  saved  and  by  no  other,  knowing  that  he  only  died  for 
our  sins,  and  is  risen  again  for  our  justification,  and  is 
ascended  into  the  highest  Heavens,  Angels,  principalities 
and  powers,  being  subjected  unto  him,  where  he  is  glorified 
with  the  same  glory  that  he  had  with  the  father  before  the 
world  was,  who  is  the  express  image  of  the  invisible  and 
God,  the  first  born  of  every  creature,  for  by  him  were  all 
things  created  both  visible  and  invisible,  and  is  the  head  and 
bride  groom  of  the  Church,  which  he  hath  purchased  unto 
himself  by  his  blood,  this  is  our  faith  concerning  Christ,  and 
if  your  faith  is  otherwise  than  this,  it  is  contrary  unto  the 
faith  of  God's  elect,  that  gave  forth  the  Scriptures,  and  then 
your  Christ  is  not  the  true  Christ,  but  Antichrist,  and  you  are 
of  them  that  deny  both  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  then 
your  doctrine  is  damnable,  and  corrupt,  and  so  that  which 
you  charge  others  withall,  you  are  guilty  of  your  selves. 

4thly.  Thou  sayest  they  deny  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead. 

This  charge  also  I  utterly  deny,  and  do  affirm  that  we  be- 
lieve that  as  in  the  first  Adam  all  died,  so  in  the  second 
Adam  shall  all  be  made  alive,  and  shall  be  raised  into  life 
everlasting,  or  unto  condemnation  everlasting,  and  that  all 
shall  receive  from  the  name  of  the  Lord  a  just  reward  for 
their  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether  they  be  good,  or 
whether  they  be  evil,  else  were  we  of  all  men  most  miser- 
able, if  we  had  only  hope  in  this  life,  and  as  the  Apostle 


r 


APPENDICES 


651 


saith,  if  the  dead  arise  not  at  all.  why  are  they  then  bap- 
tized for  the  dead,  and  why  suffered  we  imprisonments, 
whippings,  cuttings,  of  our  ears,  and  some  of  us  the  loss  of 
our  lives,  whose  blood  still  lies  at  the  doors  of  our  perse- 
cutors, in  New  England,  herein  thou  may  be  a  witness  of  the 
falseness  of  the  charge,  for  if  we  were  such  as  thou  would 
by  thy  lies  make  us  to  be,  we  might  say  as  the  Apostle  did, 
it  being  the  consequence  of  such  tenant,  let  us  eat  and  drink 
for  tomorrow  we  die,  but  our  suffering  unto  death  doth  rec- 
tifie,  that  our  hope  was  not  only  in  this  life,  but  that  after 
the  desolution  of  our  house  of  this  earthly  tabernacle  we 
should  have  a  building  of  God.  a  House  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  Heavens,  and  it  is  evident  that  they 
who  deny  the  resurrection  cannot  with  cheerfulness  offer  up 
their  lives  to  the  death  as  our  friends  did  because  then  the 
hope  of  all  their  enjo}Tnents  are  at  an  end.  but  our  mar- 
tyred friends  being  in  the  same  faith  as  the  ancient  worthies 
were,  one  of  them  not  accepting  deliverance  but  by  con- 
straint when  offered,  that  she  might  obtain  a  better  resur- 
rection; and  further  we  can  truly  say  as  Paul  did  in  the  like 
case,  what  did  it  advantage  him  if  he  had  fought  with  beasts 
of  Ephesus  after  the  manner  of  men,  if  the  dead  be  not 
raised,  so  can  we  say,  not  what  doth  it  advantage  us,  if  we 
have  fought  with  beasts  at  New  England  after  the  manner 
of  men  (if  the  dead  rise  not)  whom  we  found  more  like 
wolves,  bears,  and  devouring  lyons.  than  like  Christian  men, 
as  witness  your  forementioned  cruelty  on  the  innocent 
Lambs  of  Christ,  whom  he  sent  among  you  to  warn  you  of 
the  evil  of  vour  ways,  so  by  what  here  is  written,  and  what 
we  also  suffered  among  you  I  hope  it  will  manifestly  appear 
unto  all  honest  hearted  people,  that  not  we  but  you  as  your 


652 


APPENDICES 


practices  have  shown  do  deny  the  resurrection ;  and  Nathan- 
iel Morton  thou  are  as  grossly  false  in  other  things  in  thy 
book  called  New  England's  Memorial  as  in  this,  it  is  not 
worthy  to  be  minded  by  any,  but  as  the  Memorial  of  the 
Wicked  perish. 

5thly.  Thou  sayest  they  affirm  that  an  absolute  perfec- 
tion in  holiness  and  grace  is  attainable  in  this  life. 

Ans.  There  is  thy  own  words,  it  is  that  we  hold,  we  be- 
lieve that  Christ  is  perfect,  and  that  the  gift  of  the  grace 
of  God  is  perfect,  and  that  as  man  is  led  and  guided  by  it, 
he  is  led  to  deny  all  ungodliness  and  Worldly  lusts,  and  to 
live  godly  in  this  present  World,  and  unto  this  Christ  and 
grace  and  gift  of  God  which  is  perfect  do  we  direct  all 
people,  that  in  him  they  may  believe,  and  from  him  they 
may  receive  power,  that  thereby  they  may  know  the  Regen- 
eration and  the  new  birth  and  so  become  the  Sons  of  God, 
and  that  is  the  perfect  state  which  we  say  is  attainable  in 
this  life,  for  that  birth  cannot  sin,  it  is  true  it  may  be  slain 
or  made  a  sufferer  by  sin,  as  John  saith,  he  that  is  born  of 
God  sinneth  not,  neither  can  he  sin,  because  his  seed  remain- 
eth  in  him,  and  this  no  new  thing,  nor  strange  nor  damna- 
ble doctrine  for  this  was  the  end  or  work  of  the  Ministry, 
which  the  Apostles  had  received  from  Christ,  for  the  per- 
fecting the  saints,  and  that  they  might  present  every  man 
perfect  in  Christ,  also  he  prayed  for  them  that  they  might 
be  perfect,  and  entire,  wanting  nothing,  but  this  Faith  or 
condition  is  not  soon  or  easily  attained  to,  nor  by  other 
means  known  but  as  man  cometh  through  the  Death  with 
Christ  to  sin,  and  is  made  alive  by  him  to  Righteousness, 
and  if  you  preach  any  other  doctrine  than  his,  you  preach 
another  Gospel  than  what  Paul  preached  and  so  are  under 


APPENDICES 


653 


the  curse  which  Paul  pronounced  against  them  that  preached 
another  Gospel,  and  so  in  the  end  you  will  be  found  your- 
selves to  be  a  pernitious  sect  of  heritics,  and  not  us  called 
Quakers. 

6thly.  Thou  sayest  they  placed  their  justification  upon 
their  patience  and  sufferings  for  their  opinions,  and  on  their 
righteous  life,  retired  severity,  and  affected  singularity,  in 
the  words  and  Jestures. 

Ans.  This  is  a  most  abominable  lie,  and  a  false  slander, 
for  which  thou  must  receive  thy  reward,  among  the  lyers  in 
the  Lake  except  thou  repent,  for  we  place  justification  in 
none  but  in  Christ,  nor  by  no  other  means  are  we  justified  in 
the  sight  of  God,  but  by  the  Righteousness  of  Christ,  who 
of  God  is  made  unto  us  Wisdom,  Righteousness,  Sanctifica- 
tion,  and  Redemption,  and  as  we  feel  this  Righteousness  of 
Christ  wrought  in  us,  and  we  wrought  into  it,  we  feel  our- 
selves justified  in  Christ,  and  so  have  peace  with  God,  and 
to  believe  and  witness  this  is  no  errour  nor  delusion,  and  to 
preach  it  unto  others  is  no  corrupt  nor  damnable  doctrine. 

ythly.  Thou  sayest  as  to  civil  account  they  used  not  nor 
practised  any  civil  respect  to  Man  through  Superiors  either 
in  Majestratical  considerations,  or  as  Masters,  or  Parents, 
or  the  Ancient  in  word  or  gesture. 

Ans.  This  is  another  lie,  and  false  slander,  for  as  for 
civil  respect  we  alloy  it  to  all  men  according  to  their  places, 
both  in  word  and  gesture,  as  for  magistrates  we  respect 
their  commands  in  doing  what  is  just  and  right,  and  in  suf- 
fering that  which  is  unjust  not  using  any  means  of  resistance 
by  carnal  weapons,  and  as  to  Masters  and  Parents,  we  own 
subjection  and  obedience  to  them  in  all  things,  that  do  not 
cross  the  command  and  will  of  God,  but  as  to  foolish  ges- 


654 


APPENDICES 


tures  and  flattering  titles,  which  are  in  themselves  and  as 
commonly  they  are  used,  are  uncivil  and  not  civil,  but  usu- 
ally done  in  Hypocricy  and  vain  glory,  and  deceit,  these 
things  we  deny,  and  cannot  give  it  unto  any  man,  nor  receive 
it  from  any  man,  for  in  so  doing  we  should  be  reproved  by 
our  Maker,  and  of  this  mind  was  Elihu,  who  said,  I  will  not 
now  accept  the  person  of  man;  neither  will  I  give  flattering 
titles  to  Man,  for  I  may  not  give  titles  to  man,  least  my 
Maker  should  take  me  away  suddenly. 

8thly.  Thou  sayest  we  deny  the  use  of  oaths  for  the  de- 
ciding civil  controversies. 

Ans.  That  we  do  and  upon  all  other  accounts  whatsoever, 
and  that  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  Christ,  who  saith 
swear  not  at  all,  but  let  your  communications  be  yea,  yea, 
nay,  nay,  for  whatsoever  is  more,  cometh  of  evil,  the  Apostle 
James  saith,  before  all  things  my  brethren  swear  not,  neither 
by  heaven,  nor  by  earth,  nor  by  any  other  Oath,  but  let 
your  yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay,  nay,  least  you  fall  into  con- 
demnation, and  is  this  corrupt  and  damnable  doctrine,  dost 
not  thou  condemn  thyself  in  the  things  that  thou  allowest 
wouldest  thou  have  the  Scriptures  to  be  a  settled  and  perma- 
nent Rule,  and  yet  call  the  doctrine  therein  contained,  cor- 
rupt, pernitious  and  damnable,  wouldest  thou  not  have  called 
Christ  and  the  Apostles  a  pernitious  sect  and  their  doctrine, 
corrupt  and  damnable,  if  thou  hadst  been  in  their  days.  To 
that  of  God  in  thee  I  speak,  which  shall  answer  me  in  the 
day  when  the  book  of  conscience  is  opened  and  thou  judged 
out  of  it,  and  rewarded  according  to  thy  work. 

Qthly.  Again  thou  sayest  this  spirit  of  delusion  became 
very  prevalent  with  many  so  as  the  number  of  them  in- 
creased to  the  great  danger  of  the  subversion  both  of  Church 


APPENDICES 


655 


and  State,  notwithstanding  the  endeavors  of  them  in  Author- 
ity to  suppress  the  same,  had  not  the  Lord  declared  against 
them  in  blasting  their  enterprizes  and  contrivements,  so  as 
they  have  of  late  withered  away  in  a  great  measure ;  sundry 
of  their  teachers  and  leaders  which  have  caused  them  to  erre, 
are  departed  the  Country,  and  we  trust  the  Lord  will  make 
the  folly  of  the  remainder  manifest  more  and  more. 

Ans.  I  grant  that  the  truth  which  thou  callest  a  delusion 
became  very  prevalent  with  many  and  hath  entered  into  the 
hearts  of  many,  and  hath  prevailed,  notwithstanding  your 
Prisons,  Whips,  and  Gallows  or  any  other,  your  carnal 
Weapons  and  as  it  hath  prospered  so  it  doth  prosper  and 
shall  prosper  notwithstanding  all  that  you  can  say  or  do  for 
the  Lord  hath  not  declared  against  us,  neither  are  we  with- 
ered away,  but  if  thou  hast  an  eye  open,  thou  might  see  the 
contrary,  for  the  Lord  hath  appeared  for  us,  and  given  us 
great  dominion  over  you,  so  that  we  can  pass  from  all  your 
Jurisdiction  without  any  molestation,  and  that  we  are  not 
withered  away  is  evident  to  all  men,  for  our  Meetings  are 
more  public  and  larger  than  ever  they  were,  and  this  is 
brought  to  pass  and  accomplished  through  the  help  and 
power  of  God,  notwithstanding  all  your  bloody  persecuting 
carnal  weapons;  and  although  some  of  us  according  to  the 
'  will  of  God  are  departed  the  Country,  yet  there  are  enough 
remaining  to  make  thy  folly  manifest  to  all  men  and  more. 

Again  thou  concludes  with  these  vows  let  our  deliverance 
from  so  great  a  danger  be  received  among  the  principall  of 
the  Lord's  gracious  providences  towards  New  England. 

Ans.  Alas  poor  man  thou  gloryest  in  that  which  will  be 
your  shame;  for  I  know  not  why  thou  boasts  of  deliverance, 
except  it  be  in  this,  that  we  come  not  so  often  to  your  meet- 


656 


APPENDICES 


ings  and  courts  as  we  were  used  to  do,  and  if  it  be  so,  if 
thou  rightly  understand  the  cause  thereof,  it  would  cause 
thee  to  lament  and  not  rejoice  if  thou  hast  any  tenderness  in 
thee  towards  God,  for  in  that  the  Lord  requireth  us  not  to 
visit  you  as  formerly,  it  plainly  signifieth  that  the  day  of 
your  visitation  is  over  and  that  you  are  left  to  your  selves 
and  given  up  to  hardness  of  heart,  and  blindness  of  mind  as 
Israel  of  old  was,  whom  the  Prophet  complained  of  saying 
why  should  they  be  smitten  any  more  they  revolt  more  and 
more. 

Again  as  touching  Ephraim  the  Prophet  saith,  Ephraim  is 
joyned  to  idols  let  him  alone;  again  Christ  sayth  of  the  Phar- 
isees, let  them  alone,  they  are  the  blind  leader  of  the  blind, 
and  again,  he  that  is  filthy  let  him  be  filthy  still,  so  that  it  is 
an  evident  sign,  that,  that  visitation  is  over,  and  that  the 
next  thing  that  can  be  expected  is  utter  destruction  from  the 
hand  of  the  Lord,  and  I  am  jealous,  nay  I  verily  believe  this 
is  the  case  with  many  of  you  at  this  day  in  New  England, 
who  have  had  a  hand  so  deeply  in  shedding  the  innocent 
blood  of  the  faithful  servants  and  messengers  of  the  most 
high,  who  loved  not  their  lives  to  the  death  that  they  might 
finish  their  testimony  in  faithfulness  to  the  Lord  among  you. 

And  why  Nathanial  did  thou  not  mention  in  the  Memorials 
how  you  have  caused  the  innocent  people  called  Quakers  to 
suffer  by  you,  and  how  you  have  imprisoned,  whipped, 
spoiled  their  goods,  cut  off  their  ears,  banished,  and  hanged 
them  for  the  breach  of  no  known  just  law,  either  of  God  or 
man,  surely  if  thou  had  been  an  impartial  Historian  thou 
would  have  mentioned  this,  but  I  believe  your  actions  have 
been  so  rigid  and  bloody  contrary  to  justice  and  equity, 
Christianity  and  humanity,  that  thou  are  ashamed  it  should 


APPENDICES 


657 


be  recorded  for  a  Memorial  for  Ages  to  come,  that  they 
might  understand  how  far  you  are  digressed,  from  that 
which  ye  pretended  you  came  hither  for,  to  wit,  liberty  of 
Conscience,  and  why  did  thou  not  write  impartially  of  things 
and  men  as  they  were,  as  they  did  who  writ  the  Kings  and 
Chronicles,  who  plainly  declared  of  men  as  they  were,  justi- 
fying of  that  which  was  good,  and  disowning  that  which  was 
evil  in  them,  though  they  were  their  kings,  governors,  or 
priests,  but  thou  hast  manifest  thyself  to  write  by  another 
spirit  than  they  writ,  and  hast  done  quite  contrary,  crying  up 
men  beyond  what  they  were  and  indeed  beyond  what  your 
principle  is,  its  possible  for  man  to  be  whilst  in  the  body  but 
thou  has  manifested  thy  folly  and  hypocrisy  to  all  men,  who 
knew  these  then  it  may  be  better  than  thyself  as  for  some 
of  them  I  well  know  to  be  men  quite  contrary  both  in  life  and 
judgment  to  what  thou  hast  reported  of  them. 

Therefore  my  desire  is  that  thou  may  come  to  see  the  de- 
ceit of  thy  heart,  and  the  falseness  of  that  spirit  that  rules 
thee,  and  if  possible  that  thou  may  come  to  repent  of  it,  and 
turn  from  it,  least  thou  be  swept  away  in  the  like  judgments, 
as  some  of  them  were  of  whom  thou  makest  mention  to  be 
miraculously  slain  with  Thunder,  for  know  this  except  you 
repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish,  and  be  swept  away  in 
'judgment,  as  your  fore  fathers  the  Persecutors  in  other  ages 
have  been. 

For  know  this  that  the  Lord  our  God  is  risen  to  sweep  the 
earth,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  is  at  hand,  and  the  year  of 
recompense  draweth  nigh,  for  the  sins  of  the  great  whore 
Babilon  and  Egypt  (whose  children  ye  are  as  by  your  spirits 
is  manifest)  and  the  cry  thereof  is  come  up  unto  heaven, 
and  God  hath  remembered  her  iniquities,  and  she  shall  re- 


658 


APPENDICES 


ceive  double  from  the  hand  of  the  Lord  for  all  her  trans- 
gressions, for  in  her  hath  been  found  the  blood  of  the 
prophets  the  saints,  and  martyrs  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  all 
that  hath  been  slain  upon  the  Earth,  and  she  shall  be  re- 
warded as  she  hath  rewarded  us,  and  receive  in  the  cup 
double  for  that  which  she  hath  filled  to  us,  have  she  or  you, 
her  children  called  us  deceivers,  Heretics,  Antichristian,  per- 
nitious  and  damnable  we  wilt  now  call  her  Deceiver,  Here- 
tic, Antichristian,  pernitious  and,  damnable,  yea,  we  can 
double  it  upon  her,  for  we  can  prove  it,  to  be  so  or  else  her 
Children,  and  as  by  your  fruits,  for  as  she  have  done  so  have 
you,  murdered,  killed  and  scandalized  the  innocent,  harmless. 
Lambs  of  Christ  so  that  it  is  evident  that  we  are  members  of 
the  great  Whore,  false  Church,  Antichrist,  and  that  you  are 
guilty  of  those  charges,  which  thou  and  thy  brethren  have 
falsely  charged  upon  us  who  are  called  Quakers. 

So  in  short  I  have  said  something  of  the  Truth,  from  the 
flood  of  slanders  which  thou  hast  cast  out  against  it,  who 
am  one  of  those  that  first  came  among  you,  and  have  felt 
the  cruelty  of  all  your  laws  except  death,  and  have  outlived 
them,  and  by  the  power  of  the  Lord  come  over  all,  so  that  I 
and  the  rest  of  my  brethren,  can  walk  through  all  your  jur- 
isdiction, and  not  a  hand  lifted  up  against  us,  though  thou 
hast  gloried  so  much  of  your  being  delivered  from  us. 

Christopher  Holder. 

(1670) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

As  it  has  not  been  the  intention  of  the  author  to  go  into  the 
details  of  many  of  the  features  of  Quaker  controversial  his- 
tory (which  would  require  several  volumes  to  include),  the 


APPENDICES 


659 


object  being  to  provide  a  brief  history  of  Quakerism,  the 
following  works  are  recommended  in  which  such  details  may 
be  found :  The  Life  of  George  Fox,  Jones ;  The  Journal  of 
Fox;  Sewel's  History;  the  works  of  Besse;  and  particularly 
the  History  of  Friends  in  America  by  Bowden;  History  of 
the  Society  of  Friends  in  America,  by  Thomas;  The  South- 
ern Quakers  and  Slavery ;  the  works  of  Ruf us  Jones ;  Studies 
in  Mystical  Religion ;  The  Beginnings  of  Quakerism,  W.  C. 
Braithwaite ;  Autobiography  of  Allen  Jay ;  The  Rise  of  the 
Quakers,  Harvey;  A  Quaker  Experiment  in  Government,  by 
Isaac  Sharpless,  L.L.  D.,  president  of  Haverford  College; 
A  Quaker  Post  Bag,  Lampson ;  Quaker  Invasion,  Halloweil ; 
History  of  the  Life  of  Thomas  EUwood;  Roosevelt's  Life  of 
Oliver  Cromwell;  O'Brien's  Life  of  John  Bright;  Amelia 
Mott  Gummere's  A  Study  in  Costume;  The  Story  of  Qua- 
kerism, E.  B.  Emmott;  The  Fells  of  Swarthmore,  Webb; 
Holders  of  Holderness,  Holder  (this  book  is  not  for  sale, 
only  to  be  found  in  libraries);  Bancroft's  History;  The 
Penns  and  Penningtons,  Webb;  North  American  Indians 
and  Friends;  Life  of  Elias  Hicks;  Memoir  of  Stephen 
Grellette;  Friends  in  the  17th  Century,  Evans;  History  of 
Ackworth  School,  Thompson;  Barclay's  Apology;  William 
Penn,  by  W.  Hepworth  Dixon;  Life  of  Milton,  Mason; 
Journal  of  John  Woolman;  Memoirs  of  Elizabeth  Fry; 
Memoirs  of  Joseph  John  Gurney,  Braithwaite;  The  Gur- 
neys  of  Earlham,  Hare;  Piety  Promoted;  Tuke's  Biograph- 
ical Memoirs;  Old  Dartmouth  Sketches,  Wing;  Annals  of 
Early  Friends;  Biographical  Stories,  Headley  Bros.,  Lon- 
don; The  Society  of  Friends,  Rowntree;  Quaker  Strong- 
holds, Stephen;  Quaker  Faith,  Grubb;  A  Dynamic  Faith, 
Jones;  The  Message  of  Quakerism,  Noble;  Whittier's 


66o 


APPENDICES 


Poems,  and  the  publications  of  the  English  and  American 
Historical  Societies;  also  the  following  publications:  Jour- 
nal of  Friends  Historical  Society ;  Friends  Quarterly  Exam- 
iner; The  British  Friend;  The  Friend;  The  American 
Friend;  Our  Missions,  etc.  These  and  many  more,  are  avail- 
able in  England,  from  Hadley  Bros.,  Devonshire  House, 
London.  In  New  York,  from  David  S.  Taber,  51  Fifth 
Avenue,  and  in  Philadelphia,  from  the  Friends  Books  Store, 
Arch  Street,  and  from  the  respective  publishers. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abjuration,  108. 
Absolutism,  26. 
Ackworth  School,  244. 
AflBrmation,  116,  253. 
Albigensian,  23. 
Aldam,  Thomas,  132. 
Alden,  Thomas,  70. 
Aldrich,  613. 
Algonquin,  374. 
Allen,  377. 

"    ,  George,  403. 

"    '  Isaac,  H.,  493. 

"    '  Joseph,  403. 

"    '  Mathew,  404, 

"    '  Ralph,  413. 
Ambrose,  Alice,  460. 
Ames,  William,  151. 
Andros,  Gov.,  509. 
Antinomians,  414,  434, 
Anti-slavery,  259. 
Ap  John,  John,  76,  133,  286,  510, 
Apology,  The,  245. 
Arbitration,  33,  116,  259, 
Archdale,  John,  541. 
Archer,  Judge,  56. 
Astor,  John,  J.,  485. 

"    '  W.  W.,  483. 
Attire,  242,  243. 
Audland,  John,  70. 
Austin,  Ann,  341. 
Bancroft,  44. 
Barbados,  58,  341,  501. 
Barclay,  76. 

"     ,  David,  137. 
"     ,  Robert,  497. 
Barnstable,  376. 
Barton,  613. 

"    ,  Col.,  73. 
Bassett,  Rachael,  571. 
Bateman,  Miles,  136. 
Bates,  Elisha,  605. 
Bayard,  479. 
Bealing,  Benjamin,  242. 
Bellingham,  Richard,   342,  354. 
Beaton,  William,  278. 
Belvedere  Academy,  612. 
Bennett,  Jervase,  65. 


Berkeley,  Lord,  497. 

,  Sir  William,  343. 
Bevan,  Thomas,  262. 
Bickmore,  A.  S.  Prof.,  495. 
Birkbeck,  Dr.,  271. 
Bishop,  George,  154,  428. 
Bishopsgate,  282. 
Blake,  Admiral,  133. 
Blaugdone,  Barbara,  127. 
Boston,  460,  591-3. 
Bowne,  John,  481. 
Boyce,  Eunice,  573. 
Bradden,  Capt.,  129. 
Bradford,  William,  321, 
Braithwaite,  J,  B.,  259, 
,  W.  C,  622. 
Branding,  470. 

Breda,  Declaration  of,   140,   145,  152. 
Breed,  Content,  600. 

"    ,  Jabez,  591. 

"    ,  Nathan,  586. 
Brend,  William,  74,  342,  366,  402,  461. 
Briggs,  Thomas,  85. 

Bright,  John,  253,286,308,309,311,313. 

,  ancestry  of,  297. 

,  the  Quaker,  293. 
"      ,  Lord  Eversly  on,  293. 

,  Lytton  on,  287. 

,  O'Brian  on,  293. 
"      ,  speeches  of,  300. 
British  Museum,  284. 
Brown,  Goold,  397,  624. 

,  T.  Wistar  on,  610. 
Bryn  Mawr,  611. 
Buckingham,  178. 
BuflFum,  William,  608, 
Bukin,  608. 

Bull  and.  Mouth,  98,  156. 

Bunker,  465. 

Burke,  Ann,  476. 

Burlington,  505,  533. 

Burnet,  Gilbert,  237.. 

Burnyeat,  John,  138. 

Burrough,  Edward,  70,  123,  426. 

Buxton,  T.  F.,  244. 

Byllinge,  497. 

Cabal,  The,  177. 


664 


INDEX 


Callowhill,  517. 

Calvin,  28,  30. 

Camm,  John,  81. 

Capital  punishment,  34. 

Carleton,   Sir  John,  539. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  319,  464,  551,  567. 

Carteret,  Lord,  497. 

Cartland,  Miriam,  96. 

Catherine,  Queen,  82. 

Catholicism,  115. 

Caton,  William,  138,  151. 

Ceely,  Major,  129,  128. 

Chalkley,  Thomas,  466,  482. 

Charles  I.,  27,  68,  71. 

,  II.,  139,  459,  143. 
Chase,  624. 

"    ,  Hannah,  96. 
Cheevers,  Sarah,  138. 
Chester,  503. 
Clapp,  John,  486. 
Clarendon,  Lord,  259. 
Clark,  Dougan,  543,  640. 

"    ,  J.  B.,  628. 

"    ,  Mary,  74,  400. 

"    ,  Walter,  403,  445,  458. 
Clayton,  Ann,  72. 
Clifton,  Hope,  423. 
Clinton,  Historical  Society,  591,  635. 
Cobden,  Richard,  253. 
Coddington,  William,  458. 
Coffin,  Charles  A.,  465. 

"    ,  Charles,   F.,  259,  465,  495,  545, 
565,  606. 

"    ,  Gilbert,  469. 

"    ,  Dr.,  612. 

"    ,  Sir  Isaac,  633. 

"    ,  Tristram,  633. 

"    ,  W.  H.,  543. 
Dana,  Richard  H.,  568. 
Davis,  N.,  437. 
Delaware,  502,  507. 
Devonshire  House,  261,  282,  285. 
Dewsbury,  William,  68,  70. 
Dickinson,  Grace,  492. 
Disownment,  158,  469,  495. 
Disraeli,  306. 
Dissenters,  76,  244. 
Doak,  465. 

Dongan,  Thomas,  510. 
Doomsdale  prison,  130. 
Doudney,  74. 

,  Richard,  40,  397. 
Dover,  Treaty  of,  179. 


Dow,  J.,  613. 

"  ,  Neal,  271. 
Downer,  Anne,  98. 
Dryden,  414. 

"      ,  John,  320,  403. 

,  Sir  Erasmus,  320,  403. 
Drinker,  557. 
Dring,  Robert,  98. 
Drury,  Col.,  102. 
Dungeons,  123. 
Dutch,,  476. 

Dyer,  Gen.,  Elisha,  458. 
"    ,  Louis,  446. 

"    ,  Mary,  322,  144,  433,  436,-7.  438, 
444,  451. 

"    ,  William,  450. 
Earl,  613. 

"  ,  Edward,  565. 
Earlham,  547,  548. 
Eaton,  Col.,  J.  B.,  495. 
Eccles,  S.,  76,  462. 
Edmunson,  Thomas,  136. 
Education  Acts,  252,  271. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  145. 

,  Princess,  175,  176. 
Elimination,  162. 
Elliott,  Sir  John,  27. 
Emancipation,  passage  of,  247,  253. 
Emlen,  Sarah,  605. 
Emmott,  E.  B.,  244. 
Endicott,  Gov.,  346. 

,  Sir  John,  342,  345,  354,  390, 
412,  459. 
England,  conditions  in,  23,  24. 
Ensign,  380,  414. 
Epistles,  238,  239. 
Estes,  Hannah,  590. 

"    ,  Mathew,  569. 
Evans,  Catherine,  138. 
Eversley,  Lord,  on  Bright,  293. 
Evil  eye,  459. 
Ewer,  Thomas,  413. 
Fairfax,  Gen.,  66. 

"      ,  Lady,  56. 
Farmingdon,  638. 
Farnsworth,  Richard,  70. 
Faunce,  President,  568. 
Fell,  Henry,  72. 

"  ,  Judge,  70. 

"  ,  Leonard,  72. 

"  ,  Margaret,  70,  72,  116.  153. 
Fenwick,  497. 

"      ,  John,  531. 


INDEX 


665 


Ferris,  J.  N„  492. 

Fifth  Monarchy  men,  145. 

Fisher,  Mary,  341. 

Fiske,  John,  479. 

Fiske,  John,  on  Quakers,  350. 

Five  Nations,  509. 

Fletcher,  Eliza,  127,  137. 

Floyd,  Morgan,  96. 

Flushing,  482,  427. 

Folger,  465. 

Forster,  W.  E.,  271. 

Foster,  Thomas,  462. 

Fothergill,  Dr.,  244. 

,  Samuel,  466,  527. 
Foundation,  Sage,  325. 
Fowler,  R.,  367,  373. 

,  Sir  R.,  275. 
Fox,  George,  26,  35,  38,  45,  47,  67,  72, 
83,  90,  93,  105,  123,  177,  180, 
183,  393. 
,  in  Derby  jail,  68. 
"       '*       ,  in  Lauceston  jail,  133. 
"       "       ,  Journal  of. 

,  wit  of,  153. 
Free  Quakers,  559. 
Frenchay,  637. 
Fretwell,  John,  55. 
Friends,  32,  115. 

"      ,     influence  of,  237. 
"      ,  education  of,  240. 
"      ,    growth  of,  237. 
Frouzen,  Wilbert,  60. 
Fry,  Edward,  270. 
"  ,  Elizabeth,  55,  245,  246. 
"  ,  Louis,  270. 
Gardiner,  Harriet,  402. 
George  II.,  242. 
"      ,  III.,  247. 
"      ,  IV.,  250. 
Germantown,  637. 
Gibbons,  Sarah,  74,  342. 
Ginn,  464,  567. 
Gifford,  William,  403. 
Gladstone,  Lord,  296. 
Glyn  ,Judge,  124,  627. 
Gordon,  Catherine,  137. 
Gorges  Grant,  345. 
Gorton,  Samuel,  358-9,  361,  367. 
Gould,  Anne,  137. 

"     ,  T.  B.,  469. 
Gove,  Daniel,  90. 

"    ,  Edward,  54,  175,  511,  603. 
"    ,  John  C,  96,  627,  565. 
"    ,  Sarah,  A.,  616. 


Government  church,  157. 
Granville,  Lord,  299. 
Grattan,  Sir  John,  286. 
Grave,  John,  138. 
Grellett,  Stephen,  245. 
Grinnell,  Joseph,  565. 
Guildford  College,  611. 
Gummere,  A.  M.,  623. 
Gurney,  471,  469. 

,  John  Joseph,  453,  456,  599,  605. 
,  J.,  244. 
Hacker,  Col.,  101,  146. 

,  Sarah,  569,  584. 
Haddock,  John,  486. 
Haddonfield,  636. 
Halifax,  Lord,  179. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  138. 
Hampden,  John,  27. 
Hampton,  60,  96. 
Hanbury,  Sir  Thomas,  272. 
Hancock,  John,  486. 
Harper,  Robert,  403. 
Harris,  Thomas,  401. 
Harvey,  Edmund,  257. 

,  Thomas,  253,  622. 
Hat,  106,  123,  124. 
Hatherly,  T.,  411. 
Haverford  College,  608-9-10. 
Heavens,  Elizabeth,  127. 
Herbert,  George,  588. 
HicKs,  Elias,  452,  454,  456. 

"    ,  Willett,  484. 
Hicksite,  469,  485. 
Higginson,  John,  502. 
Hoag,  Lindley,  580. 
Hoag,  Joseph,  474. 

"    ,  Murray,  605. 
Hodgson,  Richard,  479. 

,  Robert,  74. 
Holder,  Anthony,  98. 

"    ,  Christopher,   16,  18,  35,  74,  98, 
414,  424,  438,  463,  508. 

"    ,  Charles  F.,  96. 

"     ,  Daniel,  275.  466. 

"    ,  Dr.  J.  B.,  96,  494,  566,  617. 
624. 

,  Francis  T.,  591,  634. 

"     ,  Rachael,  615. 

"    ,  Richard,  570. 

"    ,  Hall,  339. 

"     ,  Memorial,  591. 
Holderness,  98. 
Holland,  175. 

Hollow,  Christopher  Holder's,  378. 


666 


INDEX 


Home  Rule,  307. 
Hooks,  Ellis,  72. 
Horsford,  Prof.,  480. 
Horton,  Eliza,  460. 
Howgill,  Francis,  70,  99,  101. 
Howe,  Emily  H.,  378. 
Howland,  Arthur,  403. 

,  Henry,  403. 
,  Holder,  422. 
,  Rachael,  573. 
Huguenot,  476. 
Hull,  John,  462. 
Hunt,  Rebecca,  96. 

"    ,  William,  543. 
Hutchinson,  Ann,  434. 
Ibbitts,  Thomas,  76. 
Ideals,  Quaker,  256. 
Illchester,  98. 
Independence,  24. 
Indians,  376,  414,  505,  522. 
Intolerance,  341. 
Ireland,  Friends  in,  136. 

"      ,  schisms  in,  429. 
Ipswich,  44,  274. 
Jaffray,  138. 
Jamaica,  463,  477. 
James,  I.,  146,  76. 

"    ,  II.,  66. 
Jay,  Allan,  313,  567. 
Jenkins,  Almy,  605. 
Jermain,  318. 

,  Margaret,  323. 
,  Major,  324. 
"      ,  Major  John,  323. 
Jennings,  Samuel,  534. 
Jesuits,  108. 

"  and  Quakers,  140. 
Jones,  Augustine,  592,  623. 

"    ,  David,  262. 

"    ,  Eli,  605. 

"    ,  Rufus,  457. 

"    ,  Sybil,  457,  580,  605. 
Jordan,  David  Starr,  464,  565. 
Keene,  Avis,  574. 
Keith,  516,  601. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  286. 
Kempthorn,  Simon,  341. 
Kimber,  Theodore,  494. 
King,  601. 

"  ,  Divine  right  of,  601-27. 
Kirby,  Col.,  71. 

"    ,  Richard,  404. 
Ladd,  W.  H.,  489. 
Lampitt,  70. 


Lampson,  G.  L.,  Mrs.,  274. 
Lancaster,  613. 

,  James,  72. 
Lauceston  jail,  133. 
Laud,  Bishop,  27. 
Lawrence,  Joseph,  244. 
Lawson,  141,  72. 

,  Thomas,  141. 
Leddra,  William,  401,  415. 
Lenni'-Lenape,  507. 
Leominster,  638. 
L'Hommedi'eu,  Catherine,  480. 

,  Sallie,  338. 

Liberty,  242. 

"      ,  of  conscience,  461. 

"      ,  religious,  543. 
Light,  Inner,  435-37. 
Lindley,  Harlow,  584. 
Lister,  Lord,  627. 
Levellers,  66. 
Lynn,  569,  577,  588,  637. 
Locke,  John,  521. 
Loe,  Thomas,  151. 
Logan,  James,  553. 
London,  fire  of,  156. 
Los  Angeles,  546. 
Lowell,  Pres't,  567. 
Loyd,  David,  516. 
Macauly,  511. 
Malcomson,  F.  J.,  262. 
Maple  Grove,  636. 
Markham,  Gov.,  506. 
Martha's  Vineyard,  374. 
Martyrs,  110,  132. 

Marriage,  55,  57,  58,  59,  63,  596,  597. 

"        ,  civic,  116. 
Martyrdom,  128. 
Maul,  Thomas,  588. 
Mayflower,  344. 
Mazarin,  114. 

Meetings,  158,  159,  160.  161,  238, 
277,  278,  279,  280,  283,  469, 
635,  637. 

Miers,  Eliza,  462. 

Ministers,  97,  494,  495. 

Minturn,  Benjamin,  487. 

Millenarian,  145. 

Minutes,  49. 

Missive,  King's,  430. 

Missions,  Foreign,  252,  262,  263. 
,  Home,  254. 

Mohonk,  462,  607. 

Monk,  Gen.,  134,  135,  136,  140. 

Montague,  Lady,  247. 


INDEX 


667 


Moody,  Lady,  477. 
Mortola,  271. 
Morton,  Nathaniel,  645. 
Moser,  Henry,  486. 
Mott,  G.  F.,  489. 

"    ,  W.  F.,  489,  486. 
Murray,  Catherine,  487. 
"      ,  Lindley,  487. 

,  Robert,  483,  486. 

,  Robert  Lindley,  491,  493. 

,  Ruth,  S.,  493. 
Nantucket,  465,  467,  474. 
Nayler,  75,  131. 
Neal,,  353. 

New  Bedford,  473,  573. 

Negro  apprenticeship,  253. 

Newburg,  460. 

New  Castle,  562. 

New  England,  412,  587. 

New  Garden,  530,  538. 

Newgate,  246. 

New  Haven,  402. 

New  Jersey,  530,  538. 

New  Light,  589. 

Newland,  John,  404. 

"        ,  Sir  Edward,  144. 

,  W.,  403. 
Newman,  G.,  256. 

,  H.  S.,  254. 
Newport,  584,  466. 
New  York,  483,  489,  490. 
Nonconformist  movement,  344,  347. 
Non-essentials,  473. 
Norton,  Humphrey,  74. 

,  John,  346.  470. 
Oaths,  123. 
Olin,  Thomas,  533. 
Ormond,  Duke  of,  173. 
Osborne,  Chas.,  60. 
Otis,  Job,  474. 
Palmeston,  Lord,  312. 
Papists,  115. 
Parliament,  253. 

and  Cromwell,  134,  142. 
Parnell,  James,  friendship  to  Fox,  130. 
Pasadena,  546,  640. 
Paupers,  256. 
Paxton  Boys,  553-5. 
Peace,  34,  55,  404,  567.  551. 

Society,  258,  259. 
Pearson,  72. 

Pearson,  Anthony,  98,  132. 
,  Peter,  427. 
,  Thomas,  503. 


Peck,  Edmund,  466. 
Peckover,  Edmund,  482. 
Pease,  John,  254. 
Peel,  Sir.  R.,  364. 
Penn,  Admiral,  133,  171,  175. 
"    ,  Pepys  on,  170. 
"    ,  Turner  on,  170. 

,  William,    81,    169,    172-3-4,  180, 
496,  497,  498,  500,  507,  511, 
516,  517,  533,  614. 
Pennington,  Isaac,  72,  157. 
Penney,   Norman,  261. 
Pennsylvania,  496. 
Pepys,  182,  170. 
Perry,  Edward,  403. 
Philadelphia,  453. 
Pierson,  318,  323. 

,  Margaret,  324. 
Plague,  154. 

Plymouth  Colony,  344,  376,  382. 

Pome,  John,  176. 

Ponty  Pool,  96. 

Poor,  569. 

Poverty,  255. 

Preaching,  576. 

Presbyterian,  29. 

Price,  Mary,  342. 

"    ,  J.  T.,  258. 
Princeton  University,  338. 
Prison  reform,  117. 
Proclamation,  141. 
Protectorate,  83. 
Providence,  608. 
Provost,  Bishop,  476. 
Puri'tans,  25,  143,  341-4-6-8-9,  386. 
Purity,  116. 
Pyot,  Edward,  128. 
Quaker  Meetings,  157. 
Quaker  Invasion,  350. 
Quakers,  23,  116,  118,  130,  134,  137,  140, 
143,   143,  151,   152,   176.  177. 
254,  256,  258,  260,  261,  263, 
267,  276,  277,  284,  285,  286, 
352,  353,  379,  423,  590,  598, 
600,  632,  633. 

"      ,  as  a  sect,  155. 

"      ,  code  of,  116. 

"      ,  demand  liberty,  117. 

"      ,  famous,  271,  272,  276. 

"      ,  numbers  of,  261. 

"      ,  persistence  of,  130. 

"      ,  rules  for,  166. 
Queries,  264,  581. 
Oueronaille,  179. 


66& 


INDEX 


Quarterly  Meeting,  159. 
Rancocas  533. 
Rawlinson,  Sir  H.,  275. 
Rawson,  E.,  355. 
Reckless,  John,  54. 
Reform,  256. 

Restoration,  The,  140,  148. 
Revolution,  552, 
Rhode  Island,  386. 
Rich,  Col.,  136. 
Rigg,  108. 

Rhodes,  Charles  J.,  610. 
Roberts,  Gerard,  284. 

Robinson,  William,  74,  322,  421,  439,  443. 
Rodman,  David,  577. 
Rogers,  Gerard,  74,  367. 

"      ,  Horatio,  414,  445,  623. 

"      ,  Justice,  415. 
Roundheads,  154. 
Rountree,  John,  255,  270. 
Rotch,  William,  467. 
Rous,  Thomas,  59. 
Rowley,  460. 
Roxbury,  460. 
Royalist,  141,  31. 
Russell,  Lord,  304. 
Rutgers  Institute,  486. 
Sage,  Mrs.   Russell,  98,  324,   327,  340, 
403. 

"  ,  ancestors  of,  318. 

"     Foundation,  325. 

"  ,  gifts  to  Central  Park  of,  339. 

"  ,  gifts  to  Audubon  Society  of,  339. 

"  ,  gifts  of  Louisiana  Island  of,  339. 

"  ,  philanthropy  of,  319. 

"  ,  social  work  of,  325. 
Sandwich,  376,  392. 
Salem,  392. 

Salisbury,  Dean  of,  323. 
Scarboro,  Bishop  of,  237. 
Schools,  156,  244,  254. 
Scott,  Mary,  139,  318,  403. 

"  ,  Patience,   422,  437. 

"  ,  Richard,  326,  414. 

"  ,  Sir  Walter,  275. 
Sectaries,  145. 
Sewel,  J.  S.,  262,  421. 
Sewel,  154. 
Sharp,  Isaac,  261. 

Shattock,  Samuel,  139,  143,  394,  428. 
Shelter  Is.,  396,  480. 
Sign,  132. 
Simple  life,  117. 
Skipton,  257. 


Slavery,  117,  244. 
Slocum,  Col.  Herbert,  338. 

"      ,  Col.  J.  J.,  338. 

"      ,  Holder,  321. 

"      ,  Hon.  Joseph,  338. 

"      ,  Major    Stephen  L'Hommedi'eu, 
338. 

"      ,  Peleg,  318,  320,  321,  458. 

"      ,  William  B.,  322. 
Smith,  Eliza,  136. 

"     ,  Margaret,  424,  442,  450. 
Southwick,  Cassandra,  481. 

"        ,  Lawrence,  481. 
Springett,  Gulielma,  175. 
Standish,  Miles,  323,  344,  347. 
Stanley,  Lady,  291. 
Steeple  houses,  131. 
Stephenson,  Marmaduke,  422-3. 
Stockbridge,  Miss,  322. 

,  gifts  of  cups  of,  322. 

Storrs,  57. 

Stuart,  House  of,  142. 
Stubbs,  John,  138. 
Sturge,  J.,  244. 
Swarthmore  Hall,  71. 
Swarthmore  College,  610. 
Taber,  W.  C,  640. 
Taber,  David  S,  660. 
Talbot,  Caroline,  E.,  260. 
Tatham,  Benjamin,  493. 

,  George,  259,  439. 
Technology,  Institute  of,  338. 
Tewksbury,  638. 
Texts,  Strange,  603. 
Thomas,  Dr.  J.  O.,  639. 
Thompson,  Sylvanus,  275. 
Thou,  512,  519. 
Thurston,  Thomas,  342. 
Tiffin,  John,  136. 
Tithes,  79. 

Tower  of  London,  169. 
Trueblood,  B.  F.,  548. 
Turner,  M.,  170,  404. 
Underbill,  James,  639. 
"        ,  Joshua,  486. 
,  Phoebe,  639. 
Uniformity,  24. 
Unity,  239. 
Upland,  503. 
L'niversity,  Friends,  612. 
Up  sail,  358. 
Ury,  169,  271. 
Uscher,  schism,  141. 
Uxbridge. 


INDEX 


669 


Vane,  Sir  Harry,  147. 
Walny  Island,  81. 
Wanton,  318. 

Wanton,  Capt.,  Edward,  451. 
,  Edward,  322. 
,  English,  322. 
"      ,  Gov.,  321. 
"      ,  John,  322,  457. 
,  William,  321. 
War,  550. 

Washington,  George,  561. 
Watts,  George,  60. 
Waugh,  Dorothy,  74,  342. 
Weare,  603. 

Weatherhead,  Mary,  74,  342. 

Welcome,  The,  501. 

Wenham,  460. 

West  India  Company,  476. 

White  Hart  Court,  282. 

Whittier,  John  G..  410,  546,  615,  616. 


Widders,  R.,  483. 
Wilbur,  John,  454. 
Wilburite,  469,  471,  473. 
Willets,  E.  A.,  497. 
Williams,  Roger,  388,  463,  458. 
Willard,  Emma,  School,  332. 
Wilson,  William,  259. 
Winterbum,  81. 
Winthrop,  439,  462. 
Winthrop,  John,  343,  346. 
Witchcraft,  351,  354. 
Witchita,  612. 
Wood,  Catherine,  M.,  472. 

"    ,  William  H.,  484. 
Woodhouse,  ship,  74,  351,  367,  368,  476. 
Woodland,  612,  498. 
Workman,  John,  245. 
Worth,  H.  B.,  467. 
Wren,  Christopher,  282. 
Wycliffe,  John,  24. 


Date  Due 

f-.'. 

__.iiiiiiimiiii 

'^-lifii'tii]! 

